9/22/2011: Long time readers know that frustrations with getting public records from UO were one of the reasons I started this blog. We’ve made some progress with public records here at UO in the last week. The UO website now mentions a $200 fee waiver for public interest requests. This language will be strengthened soon to make it clear this waiver will be granted automatically to the press and bloggers. More changes will be coming to that website as well.
Oregon Attorney General John Kroger has also been fighting for better public records access. His office has implemented very good policies internally, and he has strengthened his interpretation of the law considerably in his new online Public Records Manual. But a recent Statesman Journal interview reports “Attorney General John Kroger said Wednesday that an attempt to overhaul Oregon’s public records law was one of his few failures in an otherwise successful first term.” The big opposition is from state agencies, counties and cities that don’t want citizens to see potentially embarrassing documents – not special interest groups.
Kroger is going to try again in 2013. Meanwhile pressure from the press and citizens can work, as it has done at UO. This Camilla Mortensen story in the Eugene Weekly reports on progress in Springfield, and the potential for progress in Lane County.
Long story short, Oregon’s public records aficionados are no longer sitting there on the group W bench – it’s now a movement.
Be First to Comment