- Advertisement -

State’s ‘sunshine laws’ compel public agencies to do what they’d rather not

Must read


Sometimes I wonder where we’d be if not for Kentucky’s “sunshine laws,” which pertain to the Open Records and Open Meetings acts.

Both are meant to provide transparency and public access to government records and meetings.

And because the newspaper seeks public records and attends more public meetings than the average citizen, I’ve come to realize that if not for the sunshine laws to compel public agencies to provide that transparency or access, it’s not a reach to say they wouldn’t do it.

Over the past year, the newspaper has experienced two local examples of public agencies decreasing transparency because there’s no law compelling them to provide the records or access we’re asking for.

You may have noticed the newspaper no longer prints divorces with other Saturday records such as real estate, business licenses, marriage licenses and building permits.

That’s because without warning, or even a phone call, Circuit Court Clerk Jennifer Besecker decided that her office would no longer email completed divorces to the paper.

For years prior to Besecker, the previous circuit court clerks would provide these records out of courtesy, which we greatly appreciated.

Instead, Besecker decided to take advantage of being an exception to the state’s open records laws that do not compel her public office to comply with open records requests.

Circuit court clerk offices are part of the state’s judicial branch and it has been determined under law that the state legislature cannot dictate what the judicial branch does with its records.

Although divorces are considered public record and are open to inspection, the newspaper would need names or case numbers to locate the most up-to-date divorce records. Otherwise, it’s a needle in a haystack.

Over the past year, I’ve had more than one conversation with Besecker about the divorces in an effort to return the divorce records to the paper.

The most recent conversation was a couple weeks ago when I called questioning whether or not her office generates a record for divorces that’s sent to the Office of Vital Statistics, which also isn’t compelled by law to provide any of its records.

She explained the attorneys fill out the forms that go to Vital Statistics and that it’s not her office generating the record.

Besecker also contended that she didn’t have the staff to email or set aside the completed divorce records for the newspaper to pick up.

In the end, Besecker’s response to me was “…there are other counties that do not do this and we are not going to do it; I’m not required to do it; I don’t have to do it….”

So there you have it.

In other words, the law doesn’t compel her, so she’s not inclined to do more than she has to.

But the circuit court clerk’s office isn’t the only local public agency that decided to decrease transparency because there’s no law compelling it.

About a year ago, the Owensboro Police Department decided it no longer wanted the public or the media to have access to its scanner traffic.

So it not only encrypted its channel but OPD also requires permission from Chief Art Ealum to gain access.

That prompted myself to request a meeting with Ealum to discuss his reasons for removing access and our reasons that it should be reinstated.

Ealum primarily blamed a local social media page for his decision to remove public access, citing it was giving play-by-play of police movements, endangering officer safety.

Instead of blocking the persons driving that social media account, Ealum used it as an excuse to ban all media from access to the scanner traffic. His argument is that he couldn’t just ban one without banning all media.

Just because you claim to be “media” doesn’t make you the press. Legitimate press are credentialed and are members of the Kentucky Press Association to boot.

Regardless, taking away that scanner traffic simply makes OPD less transparent. The scanner traffic allowed us and the public to monitor accidents and other emergency activity that we could decide whether or not to cover as a newspaper or at least follow up on.

Even though I explained that we never reported anything from the scanner traffic unless we confirmed it first, that didn’t matter to Ealum.

And because there’s no law to compel OPD to make its scanner traffic open, neither the newspaper nor the public knows about anything OPD doing unless OPD wants to make it known.

That means OPD is the one choosing what’s public and what’s not.

Where then is the accountability?

In recent years, the Kentucky legislature has introduced laws to diminish our “sunshine laws” that were once considered among the best in the nation.

But it’s clear that it’s only the sunshine laws that compel public agencies to do what they’d rather not.

And by understating that, I urge state legislators to not look at weakening our sunshine laws but look at areas where they can be made stronger, adding public trust while giving light to where there is darkness.

Don Wilkins, dwilkins@messenger-inquirer.com or call 270-691-7299



Source link

- Advertisement -

More articles

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

- Advertisement -

Latest article