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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (March 27, 2019)
NORTHWEST Wallowa.com Wednesday, March 27, 2019 B9 Public records bills may boost transparency By MARK MILLER Oregon Capital Bureau In 2017, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed reforms into law to promote gov- ernment openness and transparency. Two years later, some state offi cials and advo- cacy groups say there is more work to be done to strengthen Oregon’s public records law. A trio of bills dealing with public records is set for a committee hear- ing Wednesday and more are on the way. House Bill 2353 and House Bill 2431, both intro- duced by state Rep. Karin Power, a Milwaukie Dem- ocrat, will get a public hearing before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday afternoon. A third bill, House Bill 2345, awaits action in the House Rules Committee. HB 2353 adds teeth to the public law’s requirement that requests for government documents be addressed within 10 business days or “as soon as reasonably pos- sible.” Under HB 2353, if the state attorney general, a district attorney or a court determines that there was an “undue delay” or outright failure to address a request, they can require the public entity to pay a penalty to the requester. Oregon law grants the public access, upon request, to most documents and records kept by cities, coun- ties, school districts, spe- cial districts and state agen- cies. In some cases, records requests may be answered within hours. In other cases, despite the 10-day timeta- ble in the law, it can take months for records to be made available, if they are released at all. Power does not believe those delays and failures are all deliberate efforts to prevent people from know- ing what their government is doing. In many cases, she said, short-staffed city halls and antiquated systems of recordkeeping are to blame. “When you’re not quick to respond to somebody, they may think that there’s a reason behind it. It might simply be that person who’s in charge is busy,” Power said. “But having clear parameters and expectations will help us who serve in the public to be more respon- sive, and our agencies and our local jurisdictions to be Jaime Valdez/Pamplin Media Group Gov. Kate Brown. ‘WHEN YOU’RE NOT QUICK TO RESPOND TO SOME- BODY, THEY MAY THINK THAT THERE’S A REASON BE- HIND IT. IT MIGHT SIMPLY BE THAT PERSON WHO’S IN CHARGE IS BUSY. BUT HAVING CLEAR PARAMETERS AND EXPECTATIONS WILL HELP US WHO SERVE IN THE PUBLIC TO BE MORE RESPONSIVE, AND OUR AGENCIES AND OUR LOCAL JURISDICTIONS TO BE JUST MORE ON TOP OF EVERYTHING, START TO FINISH.’ State Rep. Karin Power, D-Milwaukie just more on top of every- thing, start to fi nish. I think that (will) take out any kind of second-guessing around why: ‘Was there a rea- son for this delay, is there something more there, are they trying to hide some- thing there?’ That’ll help, I think, just to facilitate better communication.” Power served on the Mil- waukie City Council for two years prior to her election to the Oregon House of Rep- resentatives. She said she learned a lot about not just the way Milwaukie con- ducts its business, but about how other cities across the state, large and small, han- dle their public records. “The more I learned, the more I realized how many pieces of that building block need to get right in order to be really responsive,” Power said. Little data on requests An ideological cousin to Power’s bill, HB 2431, requires every state agency to submit an annual report on how many records requests were received and how many have yet to be fulfi lled over a year. Those reports would be sent to the attorney general, the state public records advocate and the Legislature for review. HB 2431 was intro- duced on behalf of the Pub- lic Records Advisory Coun- cil. The council was among the results of the 2017 reforms, as was the cre- ation of the position of pub- lic records advocate to chair the council. The public records advo- cate, Ginger McCall, said the bill is intended to give state agencies an incentive to move quickly on public records requests that they receive. They will also gen- erate a new public record to show their work, something McCall said is lacking at present. “There’s no data what- soever on how agencies are processing requests (or) what fees they’re charging,” McCall remarked. Along with delays, fees are another barrier to pub- lic records access. Oregon allows government offi cials Equine Tooth Float SAVE 10% APRIL IS EQUINE HEALTH MONTH Thank you Wallowa County Farmers & Ranchers! Concrete Deliveries Serving Homeowners & Contractors Mixed On-Site • Metered Concrete Only Pay for What You Use Vaccinate Deworm Annual Health Check 706 Depot St. Enterprise, OR 97828 enterprisevet.com 542-426-3331 Contact Greg at 541-263-0250 GUN SHOW handling records requests to impose fees, requir- ing the requester to com- pensate them for staff time and copying costs. In some cases, those fees can rise into the hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a single request, if it is broad or complicated. Another of Power’s bills would reduce the cost to journalists who request public records. HB 2345 cuts records fees in half for the news media, and waives them entirely for a request that “describes requested records with specifi city and only includes records in which there is a public interest.” HB 2345 has not yet been scheduled for a committee hearing. List of exemptions While she declined to comment specifi cally on the bills that Power has intro- duced — both of them in collaboration with the Ore- gon chapter of the Soci- ety of Professional Journal- ists, which lobbies in Salem for press rights and pub- lic access — McCall said she believes the Legisla- ture has more work to do on transparency. “I think that there are a lot more reforms that do need to happen with the public records laws here,” McCall said. Some of that work is happening, for now, outside the Legislature. The Oregon Sunshine Committee began meeting approximately every other month in Jan- uary 2018. Another of the public records law reforms that were adopted in 2017, the Sunshine Commit- tee is tasked with identify- ing exemptions to the pub- lic records law that could be narrowed or removed altogether. The Oregon Depart- ment of Justice keeps a list of exemptions — records that don’t have to be dis- closed even if specifi cally requested — on its website. It displays 585 exemptions. Even since 2017, that num- ber has risen, and McCall has identifi ed more than 30 bills that have been intro- duced this year that would exempt even more records from disclosure. In many cases, exemp- tions are written to pre- vent the release of personal information that is held by the government — the iden- tity of police informants, or the Social Security numbers of a couple going through a divorce, to name just two. But some exemptions are broader, and the sheer num- ber of exemptions is trou- bling to some. “Each individual exemp- tion, when you take it as individually, may not be alarming,” said Shasta Kearns Moore, president of Open Oregon, a non- profi t group that advocates for government transpar- ency (and a former Pam- plin Media Group reporter and editor). “But … it just kind of becomes this Christ- mas tree where everything GUN RAFFLE DRAWING ON SUNDAY $1 OFF ADMISSION NEED TO BE PRESENT TO WIN WHEN ENTERING WITH A FIREARM TO SELL OR TRADE OPPORTUNITY The Wallowa County Fair Board Scholarship(s) will provide scholarship assistance to Wallowa County 4-H/FFA members. Applications are available from the Fair office for graduating high school students who will be attending college, vocational or trade school during the 2019 – 2020 school year. Amounts will range from $250 to $1000. Applications are available and can be picked up at the Wallowa County Fair office or e-mailed to you from wallowacountyfair@gmail.com. Candidates must submit the following by May 1, 2019 1. Completed and signed application. 2. High school transcript or statement of GPA from Registrar. 3. Three letters of reference with one being advisor or leader. Thank you Wallowa County farmers and ranchers! ALL STATE AND FEDERAL LAWS WILL BE APPLIED SECURITY WILL BE PROVIDED CONCESSIONS WILL BE AVAILABLE INFORMATION TABLES ARE $35 PER 8FT FOR INFORMATION OR RESERVATION CALL RUSS SMITH 541-786-4370 Belongs to citizens Like the Sunshine Com- mittee on exemptions, the Public Records Advi- sory Council is intended to be a source of ideas about reform. However, under the law passed in 2017, the council is temporary. It will have to dissolve after 2020. McCall plans to testify on a third bill Wednesday, House Bill 2430, that would make it permanent. “We think that it’s pretty important to keep the coun- cil alive,” McCall said. The advisory council, McCall noted, includes state and local government offi - cials, members of the news media, and a private citizen. She has found the diversity of perspectives to be valu- able. “It really allows that council to thoroughly vet policy proposals in a way that they wouldn’t other- wise be vetted,” McCall said. Power is a non-voting member of both the Pub- lic Records Advisory Coun- cil and the Sunshine Com- mittee, representing the House. Her Senate counter- part on the advisory council is Keizer Republican Kim Thatcher. Both are co-spon- soring HB 2430 and HB 2431. Thatcher’s spokesman Jonathan Lockwood said the senator was “concerned over protecting privacy while allowing better access to public records.” She sup- ports the work that the Pub- lic Records Advisory Coun- cil is doing, he added. Both Lockwood and Kearns Moore stressed that the public has the right to know what is going on in state government. “When you have a government that is by and for the people, the information they create doesn’t belong to bureau- crats,” Kearns Moore said. “It belongs to every citizen in Oregon.” SCHOLARSHIP ELGIN STAMPEDE GROUNDS APRIL 6TH 2019 9AM TO5PM APRIL 7 2019 9AM TO 3 PM ADMISSION ADULTS $4 CHILDREN 12 & UNDER FREE is exempt, and then it kind of makes the public records law meaningless.” 209 NW First St., Enterprise • 541-426-4567