In ordinary times, "Sunshine Week is an opportunity to celebrate open government and extol the virtues of the laws that advance it.
Sunshine Week 2020 has witnessed daily attacks on the public's right to know. Agencies across the country, including the Kentucky General Assembly, have erected barriers to public access and engagement — for the stated purpose of protecting public health — while very purposefully advancing a narrow (and in most cases, a nonemergency) agenda free from public "intrusion."
In a short span of time yesterday, we learned of the suspension of cherished public access rights under several state open government laws.
•On March 16, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo signed an executive order which will allow agencies to conduct all business by phone or by video conference in a state that otherwise requires the physical presence of agency members at all public meetings. Raimondo also extended the deadline for agency response to open records requests by 20 days.
https://upriseri.com/2020-03-16-oma-apra/
On March 16, Texas Governor Greg Abbott granted a temporary suspension of certain open-meetings requirements to allow for video or telephonic meetings among governmental agencies.
https://www.timesrecordnews.com/story/news/local/2020/03/17/coronavirus…
• On March 17, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas issued guidance to public agencies regarding their ongoing obligations to comply with the State's open government laws, recognizing a need for "necessary adjustment," during the state of emergency in New Mexico. His guidance addressed both open meetings and records. With respect to the latter, Balderas directed that where records cannot be electronically transmitted, agencies notify requesters that their requests will be fulfilled when the state of emergency is lifted.
https://ladailypost.com/ag-balderas-issues-guidance-to-public-entities-…
• On March 17, the Oklahoma Senate approved legislation that temporarily revises the Open Meetings laws to enable local agencies to determine the number of agency members who must be physically present to proceed.
http://okcfox.com/news/local/bill-temporarily-changing-open-meetings-la…
• Today, March 18, Tennessee's legislature moved hastily toward passage of what critics describe as a Sunshine Meltdown Law authorizing emergency suspension of existing open meetings requirements until February, 2021.
Meanwhile, in Kentucky lawmakers will proceed with (nonemergency) business as usual in the blissful absence of those who wish to be heard in opposition.
"Specially approved individuals" who support legislation, and who are invited by bill sponsors to attend and testify on behalf of the bill, may enter the Annex. Not so, at least thus far, for opponents of a bill.
Having closed the Capitol Annex to the public, they will take up bills that, among other things, circumscribe and directly threaten existing open government rights.
This includes SB 15, the dreaded Marsy's Law, whose critics have joined across ideological lines to oppose. The threat Marsy's Law poses to the public's right to know has been widely documented in those states that have adopted it.
https://amp.courier-journal.com/amp/4893307002
https://www.tampabay.com/news/2020/02/06/florida-cops-who-use-force-kee…
https://medium.com/@UFbrechnercenter/without-a-trace-how-a-misfired-flo…
https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2020/02/07/victims-rights-amendment-ma…
https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20191015/expert-calls-jso-redactions-…
https://www.yoursun.com/charlotte/opinion/columnists/column-can-police-…
Tomorrow, lawmakers are scheduled to consider, in self-imposed quarantine from public engagement, HB 194. House Floor Amendment 1 to that bill vests control of the creation of, as well as the timing of public access to, actuarial analyses of pension bills in the presiding officers of the House and Senate or the LRC Director.
https://www.facebook.com/1846598708/posts/10212704279522327/?d=n
In other words, the timing of the public's right to know the impact of a proposed pension bill will once again be in the hands of someone other than the retirement systems that commissioned it.
What other nonemergency "emergency" bills that obstruct access and transparency could lawmakers attempt to shepherd through in the din of public silence?
A bill that facilitates greater retirement systems' secrecy relative to investment manager fees (SB 219)?
https://www.facebook.com/419650175248377/posts/634222543791138/?d=n
A facially harmless bill that creates an exception for public advocates' criminal litigation files from public inspection but may be amended to include a residency requirement for use of the open records law . . . and worse (HB 443)?
https://www.facebook.com/419650175248377/posts/626753184538074/?d=n
https://www.facebook.com/419650175248377/posts/634539107092815/?d=n
A redundant and wholly unnecessary bill relating to photographs of crime victims (in many cases already protected by the privacy exception to the open records law) that briefly contained useful clarifying language relating to emailed open records requests but that was subsequently amended to exclude that language (HB 174)?
https://www.facebook.com/419650175248377/posts/632403250639734/?d=n
It's hard to imagine a greater irony than the spectacle of lawmakers (and other public officials) exploiting a world health crisis to advance an anti-Sunshine agenda during Sunshine Week.
