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Records/Archives in the News Part 01 01/18/00
Records/Archives in the News r991214b
There are 3 stories in the posting
Savannah Morning News 12/14/99
Sunshine Laws: Georgia cities lead the way in open government compliance
Savannah Morning News 12/13/99
Editorial: Uneven sunshine
Atlanta Journal-Constitution 12/14/99
Access law similar to Georgia?s upheld
________________________________________________________________
Savannah Morning News 12/14/99
Sunshine Laws: Georgia cities lead the way in open government compliance
by Robert Pavey
The Augusta Chronicle
<SNIP>
AUGUSTA?Georgia?s cities, it seems, have seen the light. In a statewide
survey, they made public records available 93 percent of the time.
That score puts them well ahead of Georgia police departments, sheriff?s
offices and school boards in complying with the state?s sunshine laws.
?Everything in this office is public record,? said Susan Crowe, the city
clerk of Clermont.
In Grovetown, ?No one asked me who I was or who I was with,? surveyor Meghan
Gourley said.
There was a different story in Talbotton.
The clerk?s office said that the city?s meeting minutes were not available.
The Manchester police chief had them, she said. When a surveyor contacted the
police chief, he said he knew nothing about Talbotton?s meeting minutes.
Talbotton City Clerk Vanessa Adams says she doesn?t recall telling the
surveyor that the Manchester police chief had the minutes. She said the
minutes were mistakenly sent to the city?s accounting firm in Manchester.
The Talbotton incident was isolated, however. The trend is to more and more
cities taking bigger steps to ensure that public records are public,
according to the survey results.
?We try to please, that?s what we do,? said City Clerk Jackie Brown of Tybee
Island, a 4,000-resident beach town near Savannah.
Tybee Island is among growing numbers of cities that place public records on
the Internet. Tybee offers its residents (and anyone else who wants to look
online) all meeting minutes since 1991.
?A couple times when they?re not up to date, we?ve gotten calls from people
wanting to know why,? Brown said. Sixty-five Georgia cities from Hahira to
Hazlehurst and points in between have Web sites, and some include instant
access to public documents.
In Columbus, city council agendas are posted online in advance of all
meetings. They offer information on rezonings, bids, building projects,
appointments, new ordinances, even citizen complaints.
Kevin Aker, PC services manager in the Columbus? Department of Information
Technologies, said online access to public records is a relatively new
venture.
?We?ve only been posting agendas for a few months,? he said. ?People want to
know what?s going on at city council meetings, and they needed to know in
advance so they can decide if they want to be there.?
The online access has been so well received that city officials are working
to expand the site and offer additional public records, he said.
?We?re always going to be upgrading it,? he said. ?We put together a
committee that will be in charge, and each department will put their
information out there that they think the public will want.?
New technology is converting the state?s once sleepy hamlets.
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
No Georgia city?s Web site identified in the survey includes planning and
zoning analyses, which would allow residents to examine the pros and cons of
proposals before public hearings.
<SNIP>
________________________________________________________________
Savannah Morning News 12/13/99
Editorial: Uneven sunshine
>SNIP>
KEEP GOVERNMENT open and accessible to all citizens, and you keep it honest.
A government that hides what it does is no longer a democracy.
Public access?the right to know?is a fundamental basis for the democracy
known as the United States. Citizens have a right to know how their
government operates, and to use that information to determine when to keep or
change their representation.
They should know when government is going to raise their taxes, why and how
that money will be spent.
When a governmental entity decides to build a landfill, as the Effingham
County Commission did recently, the people who are affected need to know
about it and have a chance to comment.
On Sunday, this newspaper and others around the state began a series on how
the public?s right to know is handled by various government agencies in
Georgia.
In some communities, public requests for information are handled properly,
without a question. If the information is public, no one needs to know what
the information is being used for or who is asking for it.
In Houston County, though, a clerk was willing to release information only
because a reporter was requesting it.
?We can?t let just anyone look at these,? Records Clerk Stacy Croxton of the
Houston County Sheriff?s Office told a reporter.
She?s wrong.
State law in Georgia lets anyone look at public records.
When government meets?city councils, county commissions, school board or
other bodies?the public has the right to know in advance what will be on the
agenda and to listen to the discussion.
The only exemptions are personnel matters that deal with specific people,
land acquisition and litigation. That?s all.
But governments often will try to use one of those narrow subjects to cover
an illegal discussion.
For instance, the discussion of providing retirement benefits for a position
is not a personnel matter, although the Savannah City Council tried to go
into a closed session on that subject a couple of years ago.
Despite problems here and there, Georgia is fortunate?Gov. Roy Barnes and
Attorney General Thurbert Baker are dedicated defenders of Georgians? right
to know.
Earlier this year, Gov. Barnes pushed through a measure in the Georgia
General Assembly to strengthen and clarify the state?s sunshine laws. The new
version gives governmental entities just three days to provide public records
and requires that governmental bodies sign affidavits to justify the closing
of meetings to the public.
Mr. Baker has worked closely with local district attorneys to enforce the
sunshine laws. He ruled that bidding records for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics
were covered by open records law, and made it clear that law enforcement
agencies are required to release information on traffic accidents.
But there still are problems.
The Savannah Police Department, for instance, refuses to let the public have
access to police incident reports, items that clearly are public records.
Police officials say the reports have confidential information?social
security numbers?that cannot be released. Removing private information from
copies is not difficult, but the department apparently prefers violating
state sunshine laws.
By contrast, the Hinesville and Richmond Hill police departments have
refreshingly forthright approaches to obeying the law.
In Richmond Hill, the attitude is: ?Everything we have here is a public
record,? said Beth Bulwinkle, administrative services director.
Hinesville sent an officer to special training to deal with open records
requests.
?I know our records are public documents,? said Capt. Stella Dowd,
administrative services commander for the police department. ?I?d rather have
an informed public than an uninformed one.?
That?s the type of public all government entities should want, and encourage.
<SNIP>
________________________________________________________________
Atlanta Journal-Constitution 12/14/99
Access law similar to Georgia?s upheld
by Alan Judd
<SNIP>
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling Monday may help Georgia defend a law limiting
public access to police reports on automobile accidents.
The court revived a 1994 Kentucky law that restricted release of reports to
victims, their lawyers, insurers and news organizations. To protect victims?
privacy, the law denied access to anyone seeking reports for commercial
purposes.
Georgia enacted a comparable law this year. Like the Kentucky statute, it
almost immediately faced a constitutional challenge. But state lawyers will
cite the Supreme Court ruling in seeking to defeat the challenge.
?It is helpful that the Supreme Court has upheld the Kentucky law,? said Jeff
DiSantis, a spokesman for Attorney General Thurbert Baker.
Cedric Spottsville, an Atlanta private detective, filed a lawsuit in July
claiming the new law violated his rights. But in October, U.S. District Judge
Thomas W. Thrash Jr. dismissed the suit.
The judge rejected Spottsville?s argument that the First Amendment guarantees
access to public information. And he said the detective?s right to equal
protection under the law had not been compromised, even though some people
were allowed access to the accident reports and some were not. Lawmakers had
a ?legitimate public purpose,? Thrash ruled, in restricting access to prevent
?wholesale disclosure? of personal information about accident victims.
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
?It means part of my case is no good,? Goldberg said, ?and it means part of
my case, I think, is real good.?
PETER A. KURILECZ CRM, CA
PAKURILECZ@AOL.COM
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