An interesting take by Courier Journal columnist, Joe Gerth, on Rep. John Blanton's disastrously ill-conceived pre-filed bill aimed at establishing restrictions on access to that most basic public information: the first and last names of judges, prosecutors and police officers (broadly defined) and criminalizing dissemination of the information.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/21rs/prefiled/BR985.html
He includes a dishonorable mention for Sen. Danny Carroll's less offensive but similarly ill-conceived pre-filed bill exempting location and address of a more extensive list of public servants.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/21rs/prefiled/BR960.html
Gerth focuses on the impediments to news reporting that Blanton's bill would erect and the likelihood that it will be expanded to shield the names of other public servants in future legislative sessions.
He argues that Blanton's bill "would open a crack in Kentucky's open records law" that could well lead to even greater affronts to the public's right to know.
In reality, lawmakers opened that crack two years ago by securing passage of two exceptions in 2018, limiting the scope of public access to the public procurement process and records relating to the process.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/18rs/HB302.html#SCS1
They widened it that same year by enacting a new exception for personal communications (a bill which began as a naked attempt to redefine "public records" to exclude public official communications about public business on private devices and thus to facilitate massive government secrecy).
And they attempted to create an outright chasm in the law in 2019 when Sen. Carroll and Rep. Jason Petrie sponsored legislation aimed at dramatically expanding the list of available exceptions to the open records law.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/19rs/HB387.html#HFA5
Petrie was back in 2020 with a seemingly innocuous bill aimed at excluding from the Open Records Act client and case files maintained by the Department of Public Advocacy and the department's contractors.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/20rs/HB443.html
Rep. Chris Freeland joined the chorus in 2020 with a bill aimed at exempting photographs or videos that depict a person's death, killing, rape, or sexual assault or abuse.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/20rs/HB174.html
These efforts were successfully defeated, at least in part, because Kentuckians voiced their strong opposition.
For this reason, and this reason alone, we appeal to The Courier to lower the paywall on articles relating to legislative assaults on open government laws.
The Kentucky Open Government Coalition has a limited audience and even more limited influence. And although the Kentucky Press Association has done a remarkable job of defending the open records and meetings laws through the decades, they cannot carry the weight alone.
As lawmakers aggressively pursue anti-public access legislation, in an unparalleled fashion, it is critical that news of their efforts reach the broadest possible audience to maximize the chances of successfully preserving our open government laws.
And it is critical that members of the public make their voices heard by contacting their elected representatives to voice their opposition.
