An unexpected mention for the Kentucky Open Government Coalition in an Associated Press non-paywalled story that appeared in the March 15 New York Times as part of Sunshine Week.

The story focuses on the National Freedom of Information Coalition's new bill-tracker which "aims to find, in real-time, all pieces of legislation that affect government transparency in state legislatures."

As it's contribution to Sunshine Week, NFOIC will "releas[e] dashboards of pending or recent legislation in all states" to "alert the public quickly so advocates can try to stop anti-transparency bills from becoming law or from spreading to other states" and "to allow journalists and researchers to spot trends," including efforts "to prevent[ ] out-of-state residents from seeking documents."

The bill-tracker system, and the article about it, is part of a wider Sunshine Week initiative.

The Kentucky Open Government Coalition was asked to comment on the challenges of identifying legislative "stealth bombs," like the failed legislative attempt to make all "proposed economic development incentives not accepted" by businesses exempt, no doubt with Louisville's unsuccessful Amazon bid package in mind, in the 2019 Regular Session.

That proposed new exception was appended to a bill to modify the language of a single existing open records exception, and passed out of a sparsely attended late afternoon committee meeting last February, without advance notice.

Fortunately, the bill — HB 387 — and its multiple anti-access amendments, was not enacted into law.

But out of that and similar covert legislative efforts to undermine existing rights under Kentucky's open records law the Kentucky Open Government Coalition emerged.

NFOIC's executive director, Daniel Bevarly, notes that "anti-transparency provisions are often buried deep in legislation, some of which may be about unrelated topics." The bill tracking system "could act as an early alarm system that blocks poorly written bills from becoming laws."

The interview took place before the world unraveled but is perhaps more important today then when it was written.

It is unfortunately true that we must remain hyper-vigilant as public officials use the world health crisis as a potential excuse for abandoning laws guaranteeing the public's right to know and limiting access to vital information. At the same time, we must exercise reason in our critique of the extraordinary measures taken in these extraordinary times.

Returning to the New York Times article, my bill-tracking methods are indeed old-fashioned, but sturdy. I am fortunate to work with a number of equally committed friends and colleagues who share information about anticipated threats to Kentucky's open government laws.

But you can bet that the Coalition will make aggressive use of NFOIC's bill-tracking system.

And, for what it's worth, I have long since given up on the correct spelling of my first *and* last name by reporters and others. It's Be*n*senhaver!