The Office of Open Records Counsel has posted video of the meeting she held with the Advisory Committee on Open Government Committee meeting from June 29.
The topics covered were upcoming public hearings and questionnaires to gather information so, as Open Records Counsel Ann Butterworth told the group, she can make her recommendation to the Legislature, presumably on whether or not to propose new fees on citizens to inspect public records, and if so, how. (See previous blog post: Public hearings, survey to gather citizen, government input on public records fee proposal.)
Since the video is long (1 hour and 43 minutes), I’ve highlighted a part of the video below that takes place nearly an hour into the meeting. Attorney Rick Hollow is calling on fellow ACOG members and Butterworth to consider that fees have very real potential to block access for ordinary citizens. Most of the meeting is spent discussing what should be in the questionnaires and the topic of the public hearings, but Hollow’s comments remind all how allowing new charges based on stories from two or three counties has potential to suppress public records access to more than 6 million citizens across all 95 counties (CLICK ON THE PHOTO):
Watch Full video: Fees for public records
