Transparency in government is something politicians like to talk about in reverent terms. Delivering it to the public that entrusts them with the responsibility of doing taxpayers’ business can sometimes fall short.
Lawmakers in the Indiana House of Representatives are in the process of writing new rules that would officially shield their work product from public view. The intent is to allow the House to exempt documents, notes and other writing or records in any form if they are created, edited or modified by members or their staff. The rules include email, voice mail, text messaging and audio recordings.
The effort began at the end of the recent legislative session, according to the Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne, which broke the story.
Although House leaders, including Speaker Brian Bosma (R-Indianapolis), are declining comment about the matter, the move comes with a lawsuit pending over the issue of access to legislative records. Early this year, two lobbying organizations requested records of correspondence between a former legislator and various electric utilities regarding a bill about solar power.
The House denied the request, claiming the Legislature is exempt from the Indiana Access to Public Records Act. Fortunately, Public Access Counselor Luke Britt disagrees, saying the Legislature must comply with the law. The lobbying groups — Citizens Action Coalition and the Energy and Policy Institute — have since filed their lawsuit.
You would think legislators would have learned their lesson. In 2001, the General Assembly passed a law that exempted it from the public records law. Gov. Frank O’Bannon, a champion of open government and access to records and meetings, vetoed the measure.
Indiana law allows the narrow exemption of “work product of individual members and the partisan staffs” of the Legislature. But “work product” has never been defined. While there may be reasons for a few specific exemptions, such a broad definition being planned is unacceptable and flies in the face of transparency. Even Britt, an appointee of the governor, urged lawmakers to err on the side of openness when drafting rules.
It is important that lawmakers pause to consider the ramifications of creating rules that go too far in exempting them from the laws they expect others to follow. What is being done violates the spirit of Indiana’s access laws.
We urge them to put on the brakes.