Open records legislation levels playing field
INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana public agencies could face new financial penalties for denying or delaying to meet open records requests from the public.
House Bill 1075, which moved out of committee to the floor of the Indiana House of Representatives Tuesday, would impose fines of up to $500 for not responding to “disclosable” requests for information in a “reasonable” period of time.
The bill’s sponsor said the measure levels the playing field for ordinary citizens.
“It allows Hoosiers to have information that the press does,” said Rep. Russ Stilwell, D-Boonville.
“It’s incentive to have skin in the game,” Stilwell said. “It’s good government. It’s what citizens of Indiana deserve.”
Critics of the bill said the terms “reasonable amount of time” and “disclosable” were too vague to be enforced.
“I have boots-on-the-ground experience with this issue,” Douglas Haney, a Carmel attorney, said. “I have dealt with more than 1,000 records requests. I have spent hundreds of hours on documents that were never looked. It will be a chill for me and for anyone who complies with the law.”
Haney said the proposed $500 fine for any official who doesn’t release a record will cause problems.
“The threat of a fine will threaten the retention of the documents,” Haney said. “I have dealt with 2,000 e-mails asking for documents, and sent one e-mail out to answer them all. With this plan, I could be subject to a $1,000,000 personal fine.”
“That information includes attorney-client privileged information,” Haney added. “It’s an unfunded mandate. It seems like no big deal, but given the tenor of the requests—it’s an unfunded mandate. I’m all for open records, but this is not the way to go.”
The bill will go to the House floor for a vote on Thursday.
