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…
Posts tagged as “2015 DOJ Public Records Task Force”
of the effectiveness of Governor Brown’s modest effort to reform Oregon’s public records law. The legislative proposals sound solid though. Gordon Friedman has the report in the Salem Statesman-Journal, here.
Update: Gordon Friedman reports in the SJ that Gov. Kate Brown will talk about the audit and her plans for transparency at 1:30 tomorrow in HR 3: https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2015I1/Committees/JLAUD/2015-11-18-13-30/Agenda Meanwhile Michael Kron’s DOJ public records task force is meeting from 1-3 in the Governor’s Conference Room: http://www.doj.state.or.us/public_records/Pages/task_force.aspx And Nick Budnick reports in the Oregonian…
No, this time it’s not about funding for education. It’s about government transparency and accountability. The Center for Public Integrity has the report here. For public access to information we’re behind Mississippi. Ian Kullgren has more in the Oregonian, here: … A report released in August by the Washington, D.C.-based Sunlight…
10/29/2015:
This morning I drove up to Salem for the first meeting of this task force. I’m still a little bitter that Michael Kron didn’t add a slot for “Obsessed public records blogger” and appoint me, but with Les Zaitz and Jeb Bladine, and what seems to be a lot of support from AG Ellen Rosenblum and Governor Kate Brown, it seems pretty clear that this group will come up with a substantial bit of legislation for fixing some of the weaknesses in Oregon’s Public Records Law.
I did hear a few of the usual complaints from some members of the task force and the audience about the “burden of public records compliance”. It’s funny how agencies that spend far more on PR flacks tasked with making the boss look good than they do on real transparency can say that with a straight face.
There’s still plenty of risk that the lobbyists and legislators will figure out how to use this as an opportunity to weaken our already weak law, and I still think the first thing to do would be for the AG to write some hard-hitting PR opinions, and set a good example for the county DAs. But this is obviously a good faith effort to get it right, with lots of political support.
Speaking of District Attorneys, one simple interim step would be for the DOJ to start collecting and posting the DA’s decisions on public records petitions. From what I’ve seen, DA compliance with the PR law is spotty.
10/21/2015: AG to try again on public records reform – or more stalling?