The Portland Tribune has the story here:
Written by Kira Hoffelmeyer and Russell Wilson
Two weeks ago, the state’s top lawyer revealed how she wants to fix what she calls a “car wreck” — Oregon’s troubled public records law.
That’s how Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum described the law when she visited our investigative reporting class last spring at the University of Oregon.
When passed in 1973, the Oregon public records law was a national model. Since then, legislators, bureaucrats, lobbyists and other attorneys general have worked to weaken the law and deny Oregonians easy access to a transparent government. It’s so bad that last year the Washington, D.C.’s Center for Public Integrity gave Oregon an “F” for government transparency.
As journalism students, we’d seen how important the public records law is — not just to our work but also to activists and citizens who want to know how their government works and tax dollars are being spent.
This spring, we tried an experiment. We figured that if anyone understood the law and its problems, it would be members of the public records task force Rosenblum empaneled to help strengthen the law. On May 4, we sent a public records request to the 21 members of the public records task force, asking each one for “any and all communications between you, public employees or any other person that relate to the work of the task force.”
The very interesting story then goes on to explain the long series of delays, fees, and missed documents. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Task Force’s proposed public records reform is a pale shadow of what John Kroger tried to do in 2006.
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