Public Records Law legislation

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Senate Plans Feb. 4 Vote on Public Records Law Legislation

The Senate has announced plans to debate and vote on a controversial bill to update the public records law on Thursday, February 4. The Senate Committee on Ways and Means is preparing a recommendation that may be released within the next 2 weeks.

The House approved an overhaul of the records law in November. That bill was drafted by the House Committee on Ways and Means after weeks of discussion with all stakeholders, including the MMA. The House bill reflects a difficult balance between the demands made by newspaper publishers and other advocacy groups, and the concerns of state and municipal officials who are seeking reforms that are workable and not overly costly to implement. Several influential advocacy organizations and their lobbyists are pressuring the Senate to incorporate harsher and most costly provisions that were not included in the House compromise.

Since last July, the MMA has met with proponents of the bill, legislators in both branches, and legislative staff to explain the impact on local government, and talk about ways to update the law in a balanced manner that enhances access to public records while being workable and affordable at the local level. We know that local leaders have communicated with legislators and talked to them at local meetings, and it is important to renew those efforts now.

Please call your Senators, even if you’ve talked to them before, and remind them about your concerns and the problems that would be created by over-burdensome changes to the law. Please let your Senators know about the types of record requests you receive now, and the local resources that are needed to comply.

Please ask your Senators to make sure that any bill approved by the Senate is balanced and fair by including the following protections for local taxpayers:

1. No unfunded mandates! Please ask your Senator to make sure any new administrative requirements are minimized. And, critically, please ask that cities and towns can continue to be reimbursed a fair and reasonable fee for complying with record requests, particularly the increasing number of complex and labor-intensive requests. If communities cannot be adequately reimbursed for the cost of responding to requests, communities will be forced to cut funding from other parts of the budget or increase their reliance on the property tax. That’s why state law (Proposition 2½) has placed a ban on new unfunded mandates.

2. Enough time to comply! Please ask your Senator to make sure the deadlines for compliance are workable and flexible enough to apply to requests ranging from the simple to the most complex and time-consuming. This is particularly important to smaller communities and those with limited administrative capacity. Public records requests are important, but the law must be structured so that communities can have enough time to respond without being forced to crowd out or delay other important public services and obligations to taxpayers. The framework in the House bill recognizes this by providing municipalities with up to 75 days to comply with a request, but also provides avenues for those requesting public records to appeal if they believe the requests should be completed in a shorter time frame. Efforts to reduce the time to comply would make the bill unworkable and more burdensome for too many local governments.

3. Fair enforcement! Please ask your Senator to make sure that any penalties or provisions for attorney’s fees or court costs are balanced and do not apply when a city or town is making a good faith effort to respond to requests. Some advocacy groups are calling for language that would provide a financial incentive for lawsuits, and take away discretion from judges. The House language is already more favorable for plaintiffs than in other legal proceedings, including civil rights cases, a fact that has been ignored. And please ask your Senator to make sure that there is good language to protect cities and towns from the increasing problem of harassing and frivolous requests.

Please Talk With Your Senators Today