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2017 Sunshine Award Winners Page 1 of 1 <br /> Attachment 2 5 <br /> 2017 Sunshine Award Winners <br /> The winners of the N.C. Open Government Coalition's third annual <br /> Sunshine Awards were announced at Sunshine Day on Elon University's <br /> campus Monday. The winners are WFAE associate news director Lisa Worf, <br /> Elon law fellow Elliot Engstrom and Orange County Government. <br /> The N.C. Open Government Coalition announced the winners of its 2017 Sunshine Awards Monday in <br /> Elon at the organizations annual Sunshine Day event. <br /> The awards are intended to honor people and organizations whose work helps keep citizens informed <br /> about what their governments are up to. The coalition honors one outstanding journalist,government <br /> employee or organization, and an advocate for transparency each year. In some years a citizen award is <br /> also given out. One was not awarded in 2017. <br /> The winner of the 2017 Sunshine Award for journalism is Lisa Worf,WFAE associate news director.Worf <br /> was nominated for her ongoing reporting on a new law that took effect in 2016 governing how police <br /> video is made available to the public.The law exempted video from the public records law and created a <br /> new process through the courts for determining whether or not it should be released.Worf was one of the <br /> first people in the state to test the new process to gain access to a video of a police shooting. From <br /> preparing to file a petition with the court, to arguing against attorneys representing the police department <br /> and district attorneys office,Worf took her audience with her through the journey.After initially being <br /> denied,Worf eventually convinced a court to release the video. <br /> The winner of the 2017 Sunshine Award for advocacy goes to Elliot Engstrom,fellow at the Elon <br /> University School of Law. Prior to joining the law school, Engstrom was an attorney at the Civitas <br /> Institute's Center for Law and Freedom. It was in that role that he took up, pro bono, the case of Ellen <br /> Deitz Tucker who was trying to get information from the city of Belmont in Gaston County related to her <br /> sister's death. Engstrom represented Tucker in a lawsuit against the city over its refusal to release a <br /> report on the police department that was prepared by a private investigative agency on the city's behalf. <br /> In August, the court ruled that significant portions of the report are public record and must be released. <br /> The winner of the 2017 Sunshine Award for government is Orange County Government on the basis of its <br /> efforts to move information online to ease access. In November 2016, Orange County launched a new <br /> transparency site that allows users to easily find such things as budgets,financial audits, email sent to <br /> county commissioners, contracts, expenditures, planning permits, and streaming video of meetings. By <br /> creating a portal for easier access to these important records, Orange County is proactively making <br /> records available before a public records request is necessary. <br /> Jonathan Jones, Staff 3/13/2017 8:50 AM <br /> http://www.elon.edu/e-net/Article/145315 3/15/2017 <br />