Public Record Law
Nov 06, 2006 21:00 | Transparency in
Government
Have you ever put in an information request to a City
or State agency under the Public Records Law (it's the
state version of the federal Freedom of
Information Act)?
If you have, you know how hard it is to get information out of our government, especially if it concerns the actions of elected officials. But with a few specific exceptions, you are entitled to those documents. And you should get them within ten business days.
But to conceal inconvenient truths, government officials and staff find ways to evade the Law. They invalidly claim exceptions, they delay, or they just stonewall and don't answer at all. Instead of waiving the costs to citizens, as the Law encourages, they may threaten to bill you for thousands of dollars for "searching" the information, and charge $.50 a page instead of the $.20 the law allows (the BRA and the City Clerk do this).
You can appeal for help to the State Supervisor of Public Records, Alan Cote, in the Secretary of the Commonwealth's Office. But it takes a long time, and if an official just ignores the request, the Supervisor's hands are tied -- Attorney General Tom Reilly has interpreted the Law in a way that undermines the State's ability to force disclosure. Peter Caruso and Robert Ambrogi are lawyers experienced in PRL cases and knowledgeable about reform efforts; we might invite them and Cote as guest speakers at an ABN forum on this subject. If you have advice to document seekers on how to deal with reluctant officials, please post it here.
The Supervisor and Secretary of State Galvin, together with a couple of legislators, have introduced legislation to reform the law, but without success so far; we need to push reform legislation this session. And one major reform will be especially important and especially difficut: removing the legislature's exemption from the law!
If you have, you know how hard it is to get information out of our government, especially if it concerns the actions of elected officials. But with a few specific exceptions, you are entitled to those documents. And you should get them within ten business days.
But to conceal inconvenient truths, government officials and staff find ways to evade the Law. They invalidly claim exceptions, they delay, or they just stonewall and don't answer at all. Instead of waiving the costs to citizens, as the Law encourages, they may threaten to bill you for thousands of dollars for "searching" the information, and charge $.50 a page instead of the $.20 the law allows (the BRA and the City Clerk do this).
You can appeal for help to the State Supervisor of Public Records, Alan Cote, in the Secretary of the Commonwealth's Office. But it takes a long time, and if an official just ignores the request, the Supervisor's hands are tied -- Attorney General Tom Reilly has interpreted the Law in a way that undermines the State's ability to force disclosure. Peter Caruso and Robert Ambrogi are lawyers experienced in PRL cases and knowledgeable about reform efforts; we might invite them and Cote as guest speakers at an ABN forum on this subject. If you have advice to document seekers on how to deal with reluctant officials, please post it here.
The Supervisor and Secretary of State Galvin, together with a couple of legislators, have introduced legislation to reform the law, but without success so far; we need to push reform legislation this session. And one major reform will be especially important and especially difficut: removing the legislature's exemption from the law!
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