\n
\nSam Olens, Mike Bowers at odds over change to Open Records Act<\/a>,<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nAt issue is House Bill 397, which was drafted by Olens and received its
\nfirst public hearing at the state Capitol this week. One provision in
\nthe bill would prohibit those who file lawsuits against state or local
\ngovernments from using the Open Records Act to obtain records for use
\nin court.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n<\/a>
\nBowers has successfully used open records to win a lawsuit on behalf
\nof fired librarians.
\nThe proposed law would prevent such uses.
\nOlens said:<\/p>\n\n“What we’re trying to do is incorporate past judicial decisions so we’re
\nall on the same page,” Olens said. “When you’re suing the government,
\nyou should have no other advantage that you would when you’re suing a
\nprivate party.”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nThe current Georgia sunshine law has two parts: open records and open meetings.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\nThe Georgia Open Meetings Act,<\/DT>
\n- which governs which governmental
\nmeetings are open to the public, can be found at
\n
\nO.C.G.A. \u00a7 50-14-1 through 50-14-6.<\/a>
\n<\/DD>
\n
\nThe Georgia Open Records Act,<\/DT>
\n
\nwhich governs which government records
\nare to be open for public inspection, can be found at
\n
\nO.C.G.A. \u00a7 50-18-70<\/a>,
\n71<\/a>,
\n72<\/a>,
\n73<\/a>,
\n74<\/a>,
\n75<\/a>,
\nthrough
\n50-18-76<\/a>.
\n<\/DD>
\n<\/DL>
\n(Those links are to old copies at justia.com;
\nthe current official copy of the Georgia Code is through an incredibly opaque
\n
\nLexis-Nexis interface<\/a>
\nthat seems to have no way to link directly to a given section.)<\/p>\n\nThe proposed law is House Bill 397:
\n
\nsummary<\/a> and
\nPDF.<\/a><\/p>\n\nThis is one part that I think elected officials are objecting to:<\/p>\n
\n(C) The gathering of or communications between more than two but
\nless than a quorum of the members of the governing body of an agency
\nor persons appointed by those members to serve in their stead if
\nthe primary purpose of that gathering is to evade or avoid the
\nquorum requirements for conducting a meeting while discussing or
\nconducting official business.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWhat if they attend church together or ride in a car to Atlanta
\nfor the Bird Supper?<\/p>\n\nRecordings are still explicitly allowed:<\/p>\n
\n(c) The public at all times shall be afforded access to meetings
\ndeclared open to the public pursuant to subsection (b)
\nof this Code section. Visual and sound recording
\nduring open meetings shall be permitted.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nI think that old LCBOC minutes are in violation of this section:<\/p>\n
\n(B) The regular minutes of a meeting subject to this
\nchapter shall be promptly recorded and such records shall be open
\nto public inspection once approved as official by the agency or its
\ncommittee, but in no case later than immediately following its
\nnext regular meeting; provided, however, that nothing
\ncontained in this chapter shall prohibit the earlier release of
\nminutes, whether approved by the agency or not. Said minutes shall,
\nat a minimum, include the names of the members present at the
\nmeeting, a description of each motion or other proposal made, and
\na record of all votes. The name
\nof each person voting for or against a proposal shall be recorded
\nand in all other cases it shall be presumed that the action taken
\nwas approved by each person in attendance unless the minutes reflect
\nthe name of the persons voting against the proposal or abstaining.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nBecause for a long time they did not record who voted for or against motions.<\/p>\n
\nThere are still a long list of meetings that are exceptions including
\nstaffing, land purchase, adoptions, hospital discussions about abortion, etc.<\/p>\n\nOn Open Records, public documents will be defined to be:<\/p>\n
\n‘Public document’ means all documents, papers, letters, maps, books,
\ntapes, photographs, computer based or generated information, or
\nsimilar material in the possession of an agency or in the possession
\nof a private person or entity when such documents have been transferred
\nto it by an agency for storage or future governmental use or have
\nbeen generated pursuant to a formal or informal agreement with an
\nagency to provide a governmental service that might otherwise be
\nprovided by an agency.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n