Panel OKs bill to open up Governor’s Office records

• By MARK BALLARD
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: May 14, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Over the objections of Gov. Bobby Jindal, who campaigned on making government transparent, a House panel Tuesday approved legislation that would limit the records a governor could keep from public view.

The House and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 8-5 on changes that would narrow the sweeping exemption to the state’s public records law afforded the Governor’s Office.

Under the amended House Bill 1100 approved by the panel, only the governor, his chief of staff and his executive counsel would be able to keep their records from public view.

HB1100 is sponsored by Rep. Wayne Waddell, R-Shreveport. He argued existing law includes secretaries and clerks who handle the most mundane tasks for the governor.

The existing law also keeps secret the records generated and used by all the employees of about 60 agencies which are considered part of the Governor’s Office, such as the Office of Civil Rights, the Pet Overpopulation Advisory Council and the poet laureate.

Jimmy Faircloth, Jindal’s executive counsel, agreed that most of the agencies should be dropped from the exclusion.

But he opposed HB1100 as too broad because it would require many of Jindal’s other employees in the State Capitol to disclose.

Faircloth argued to the committee that listing only the governor, chief of staff and executive counsel creates questions about other positions required to turn over their documents. Would his personal secretary, for instance, have to disclose documents, Faircloth asked.

“Everybody in this building who works for Gov. Bobby Jindal, does his work all day long, 24 hours a day,” Faircloth said. “What’s going to happen is that none of us is going to put anything in writing.”

Faircloth argued that Waddell’s proposal also would chill the free exchange of advice and information with the governor.

Supporters of HB1100 countered that Louisiana is ranked by a national press association among the worst in terms of how state law restricts public access to their chief executive’s work.

Members of the committee discussed how Alabama, Florida and North Carolina all have successful economic development efforts, and allow public review of documents held and created by those states’ governors.

Faircloth said in an interview after the hearing that shifting from the “very broad exemption” that Louisiana has to a narrower one that other states employ would require training staff, for instance, on what documents to retain and disclose.