Georgia Senate Adds 911 Calls to Open Records Exemptions

In addition to crime scene photographs, the Georgia Senate also wants to exclude 911 emergency calls that reveal a victim's "personal suffering" from the state's Open Records Act. It was an amendment to the bill unanimously passed by the House that excludes crime scene photographs from the Open Records Act.

Read more here.

Because of Budget Cuts, Reporting on Budget Cuts More Difficult

California state Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) has criticized state and local officials in California who are increasingly blaming budget cuts and furloughs for delays and withholding of information under the state's Public Records Act.

The Sacramento Bee says this new excuse stymies the ability of the media to perform its watchdog role at a critical time when the public should know about budget cuts, downsized programs, and government dysfunction.

Click here for more about delayed or reduced projects due to lack of public information access.

Atlantic Beach Resident Prompts Public Records Compliance Changes

As part of a settlement agreement with Atlantic Beach resident Paul Curry, town officials must make public records available to the public to inspect and copy with a minimum delay, and to justify any money charged for Freedom of Information Act requests. Also among the agreed changes, the town must also post in Town Hall a copy of the state FOIA and the Public Officials' Guide to Compliance with South Carolina's Freedom of Information Act. The town must also pay $5,000 in Curry's legal fees.

University of Iowa Says Consultant's Documents Not Subject to Open Records Law

The University of Iowa denies that records sought by The Press-Citizen are subject to the state's Open Records law. The news group sought documents and correspondence from a consulting firm that helped the university draft new strategic communications and media response polices and communications consulting for an amount in excess of $250,000 in 2009.

The Press-Citizen sought documents and correspondence from the consultants and UI officials that related to the media relations strategies, practices and policies and tactical advice for specific circumstances or interviews. The university maintains that the Open Records law does not apply because the consulting firm is an external agency that was not performing a governmental function.

Kathleen Richardson of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council says the university's position violates the Open Records law and undermines a 2005 Iowa Supreme Court ruling.

For more, click here.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Considers Deliberative Process Privilege for Governor

The Wyoming Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case to decide whether the governor enjoys a "deliberative process privilege," which he could use to shield documents from public view.

The case stems from the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's request to see recommended budget cuts from two state agencies and the governor last spring.

Attorney General Bruce Salzburg argued that the privilege fosters frank discussions between agency employees and executives, which might be stifled if the public had access to them.

Open records law advocates disagree, saying if there is to be a deliberative process privilege, it should be the legislative branch that decides, not the judicial branch, and that the public has a right to know the deliberative process of its representatives.

A Treasure Trove of Connecticut State Budget Information

The Yankee Institute, a libertarian Connecticut think tank, launched the website www.ctsunlight.org, which allows users to easily navigate through the state budget. The website was built with data from a massive FOI request to the state comptroller, and it includes information on individuals' salaries, pension payments, the amounts of checks to vendors, and more.

Read more here.

South Carolina County Council May Have Violated Public Meetings Laws Conducting Business Via E-mail

In a three-part series, TheState.com reports that Horry County, South Carolina council members have repeatedly conducted business via e-mail, without a quorum, and out of the public's view. The Sun News obtained 1,348 pages of e-mails sent between January 2009 and January 2010, which reveal that the council may have violated the state's Freedom of Information Act by having conversations that should have taken place in a public meeting.

For more, click here.

New Hampshire Affirms Right-to-Know Law

The New Hampshire Supreme Court ordered an umbrella organization representing municipalities and schools to release individual salary records to a firefighters' union that tracks the organization's use of taxpayer money paid for health insurance.

Affirming the state's Right-to-Know Law, a unanimous court said public access gives direct insight into the operations of a public body through scrutiny of wages paid to particular job titles.

"Public scrutiny can expose corruption, incompetence, inefficiency, prejudice and favoritism," Chief Justice John Broderick wrote.

Read more here.

Michigan Court of Appeals Asks Legislature to Update the State's FOIA

In a "friendly" lawsuit set up to determine whether emails from teacher union leaders are public records if they are contained in a school district's computer system, the Michigan Court of Appeals said no, they are not.

The Court also asked the Legislature to clarify and update the state's 33-year old Freedom of Information Act to address electronic records. Judges Mark J. Cavanagh, E. Thomas Fitzgerald and Douglas B. Shapiro wrote that the case presented a "difficult question requiring that we apply a statute, whose purpose is to render government transparent, to a technology that did not exist in reality (or even in many people's imaginations) at the time."

Read more about the decision here.

AP Asks West Virginia Supreme Court to Rehear Email Dispute

The Associated Press has filed a request for rehearing of a November ruling that decided a former justice's emails to a coal company executive were not subject to West Virginia's Freedom of Information Act.

The AP's petition asks the Court to reverse its opinion and rehear the case because the state's FOIA law should be liberally applied. "The dreadful message sent by this Court's opinion is that questions about a judge's impartiality are none of the public's business," the AP filing states. "To suggest that such records are non of the public's business is not just wrong factually and legally, it is bad public policy."

For more information, click here.

Wisconsin Decides Whether Personal Emails Are Public Records

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear a case in November that decides whether personal emails of public employees are subject to the state's open records laws. The case stems from the request of a private citizen who wanted to know if public school teachers were violating school policy by using work email to discuss school board elections. When asked for email messages "from the computer [the teachers] use[d] during their school work day," teachers objected to providing emails of a purely personal nature. The Court must decide whether the public interest in disclosure trumps the privacy and "reputational" rights of Wisconsin citizens.

More here.

Oh Come On... From the You-Can't-Be-Serious Files Comes This Absurdity from Oregon

Check out this blog post -- It reports the absurdity of the Oregon attorney general's claim of copyright protection over a state-produced guide to using public records.

Let's see if the AG has the gall to go after Professor Bill Harbaugh of the University of Oregon, who has posted a copy of the guidebook on his website!

NFOIC Summit: Delaware FOI roundup

State-by-state updates at the 2009 NFOIC Summit: Coralie Pryde of Delaware Coalition for Open Government provided a summary of her state's FOI news.

• Delaware is deeply in need of a better FOI. There are access problems with the family courts and attorney general.
• The agenda for the Sustainable Energy Utility Oversight Board is usually sparse. One can never tell when the board will go into executive session.
• Delaware now has one foot in the door When the state FOI policy was developed, the legislature totally exempted itself. Sen. Karen Peterson helped get a stronger open government bill passed. It's now on the governor's desk, and we expect him to sign it. E-mails of legislators are off limits and some caucuses are off limits, but it's a real victory.
  

Calif. Senate approves cost-limiting bill

The California Senate unanimously approved a bill to prevent judges from ordering plaintiffs to pay governments' legal costs in open records and meetings lawsuits, the AP reported. Newspaper publishers supported the effort.

The cost of fighting for access to public records and meetings would be limited under a bill approved by the Senate.

Sen. Leland Yee's bill would bar judges from ordering plaintiffs to pay governments' legal costs in open records and meetings lawsuits. Yee, a Democrat from San Francisco, says high costs have "a chilling effect" on such public interest lawsuits.

For instance, the nonprofit Center for Public Forum Rights near Sacramento paid $80,000 in government attorneys' costs last year after it sued Orange Unified School District for allegedly altering video of a public meeting.

More here.

Ill. House unanimously approves FOI overhaul

The Illinois House voted 116-0 in favor of a bill to overhaul the state's FOI and Open Meetings acts, the AP reported. The bill, which gives a public access counselor in the attorney general's office power to mediate disputes and making binding decisions among other improvements, now heads to the Senate.

Taxpayers trying to wade through the sometimes-murky waters of government bureaucracy would find a clearer stream under legislation the Illinois House approved Wednesday.

Lawmakers voted 116-0 to overhaul the state's Freedom of Information and Open Meetings acts.

The bill would require government bodies to respond to requests for documents more quickly, create a position in the attorney general's office responsible for ruling on and mediating disputes and impose civil penalties for bureaucrats who purposefully ignore a request or disregard the law.

More here.

Open-government advocates oppose Illinois FOIA rewrite bill

The current Illinois FOIA is weak but better than the revised bill, open-government advocates told The State-Journal Register. They initially supported revisions drawn up by Attorney General Lisa Madigan, but changes last week, supposedly made by staff for the House speaker and Senate president, were met with opposition. Included in the changes: "a blanket prohibition on releasing home addresses and license plate numbers" and "allowing public officials to satisfy FOIA requests with paper records, and charging for each page, rather than providing information in electronic format."

Open-government advocates say Illinois would be better off with an existing but flawed Freedom of Information Act than with a revised law released by House Democrats late Tuesday, just one minute before midnight and less than two weeks before the General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn.

Rather than making records more accessible, officials with the Illinois Press Association say the provisions put forth by legislative leaders would make it easier for government officials to delay and ultimately keep some records secret.

“This would just open up a whole new range of litigation,” said Beth Bennett, IPA director of government relations.

More here.

W. Va. Supreme Court to hear appeals in e-mail case involving a former chief justice

The West Virginia Supreme Court will consider the AP's appeal of a Kanawha County Circuit Court ruling that decided only five of 13 requested e-mails from former Chief Justice Elliot "Spike" Maynard would be released, the AP reported. Circuit Judge Duke Bloom had ruled that the e-mails were not released because they were not related to public business. A Supreme Court administrator is appealing this ruling and arguing that e-mail involving justices is exempt from FOIA.

The West Virginia Supreme Court unanimously agreed Thursday to consider The Associated Press' appeal of a ruling on whether the justices' e-mails are subject to the state's Freedom of Information Act.

The AP is appealing a Kanawha County Circuit Court ruling that released just five of 13 e-mails between former Chief Justice Elliot "Spike" Maynard and Massey Energy Chief Executive Don Blankenship.

The AP sought the e-mails after it came to light that Maynard and Blankenship vacationed together in Monaco when cases involving Massey Energy were heading to or pending with the court. Maynard lost his re-election bid last year.

More here.

Ark. bill to exempt executions from public record stalls

An Arkansas Senate committee is trying to reach a compromise concerning a bill that would exempt all "policies and procedures for carrying out the sentence of death and any and all matters related" from the Administrative Procedure Act and the FOIA, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. Execution procedures, including what drugs are used in executions, would then be left up to the prison director.

An attempt to amend state laws on executions stalled in a Senate committee Wednesday after members questioned the need for secrecy about what chemicals are used.

After a lengthy discussion, Rep. Bobby Pierce, D-Sheridan, delayed consideration of the bill so a compromise might be worked out between prison officials who want virtually the entire process to be exempt from the state's Freedom of Information Act and some members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who said they were concerned that too much would be concealed.

With perhaps two weeks left in the legislative session, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel's chief deputy, Justin Allen, promised to bring back House Bill 1706 before lawmakers depart the Capitol.

More here.

Florida celebrates 100 years of Sunshine Law

Florida's Sunshine Law began with a bill introduced in 1909 that spanned only 36 words. Of course, the law has evolved since then in good and bad ways, Pat Rice of the Northwest Florida Daily News reported. Just recently, a bill was introduced that would exempt personal identifying information (names, addresses, etc.) for current or former public school teachers, administrators and school board members.

Sunday is Sunshine Sunday, a day each year when newspapers across Florida champion the state's open-records and open-meetings laws.

This year is of special note because it's the 100th anniversary of the genesis of Florida's Sunshine Law, which protects your right to know how your government operates.

In 1909, a state representative from Gadsden County, J.W. Mahaffey, introduced a bill requiring that "all state, county, and municipal records shall at all times be open for a personal inspection of any citizen of Florida and those in charge of such records shall not refuse this privilege to any citizen."

More here.

Penn. FOI director says state is in 'new era of openness'

The York Daily Record spoke with Kim de Bourbon, executive director of the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition, in honor of Sunshine Week. In regards to the state's 2-year-old right-to-know law, De Bourbon said, "For the first time, government agencies are being told they have not followed the law in denying access to records." For example, the Office of Open Records ruled that "a secretary's tape recording of a public meeting -- even if made only for the purposes of writing up the minutes -- is a public record and accessible to the public." She hopes that fees will be addressed in the future and that agencies will start providing records online via PDFs.

As part of Sunshine Week, a national effort to raise awareness of public records, the York Daily Record/Sunday News asked Kim de Bourbon, executive director of the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition, some questions about the state's new open records law, which is 21/2 months old.

More here.