Our Views: Open access to records

• Advocate Opinion page staff
• Published: May 15, 2008 - Page: 6B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Gov. Bobby Jindal entered office this year promising ethics reform and greater accountability in state government. Jindal secured passage of ethics legislation that is supposed to help accomplish  those goals.

But the best way to promote ethical conduct and accountability in government is to let the public have access to documents and deliberations regarding public business.

That is why we urge the governor and the Legislature to abolish sweeping exemptions that shield a large number of government documents from public view.

The Louisiana Public Records Law already grants the public considerable access to a number of state and local government documents. The law includes some reasonable exemptions for such things as confidential medical information, and certain proprietary and financial data of businesses.

However, the law regarding secrecy of records in the control of the governor isn’t clear. Under one compelling interpretation, it could put a virtual seal on documents generated in the governor’s executive office, and more than 60 agencies, boards and commissions under the governor’s direct control.

Jindal’s administration, to its credit, has endorsed the idea of scaling back exclusions for most of those separate agencies, many of which were created after the original state public records law was enacted.

We commend the governor for supporting  access to public documents generated by these state agencies.

However, we would urge the governor to go even further by supporting greater access to public documents generated by his executive office. Over objections of Jindal’s executive counsel, Jimmy Faircloth, the House and Governmental Affairs Committee approved a bill that would make public many more records of the governor’s executive office.

Under an amended version of House Bill 1100, sponsored by state Rep. Wayne Waddell, R-Shreveport, only those records in the custody of the governor, his chief of staff and legal counsel would be shielded from public view.

The Jindal administration is supporting an alternative to Waddell’s bill that would, in our view, still keep too many government records sealed from public view. Under Senate Bill 629, which the administration is backing, documents in the offices of the governor, inspector general, the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, the state Military Department, and various documents related to economic development recruitment efforts would remain sealed. The bill is sponsored by state Sen. Mike Walsworth, a Monroe Republican.

The apparent rationale for limiting public access to documents in the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and the state Military Department is concern about compromising sensitive security issues such as terrorist threats. But state homeland security officials also deal with matters such as hurricane preparedness, a subject which, especially in post-Katrina Louisiana, should be open to broad public review.

Since Katrina, military personnel under the control of the governor have helped with police duties in New Orleans. Should documents related to such work be more secret than other police records?

Such challenges convince us that exceptions to the public records law should be based on particular types of records, not which public official or agency happens to have custody of them. That’s the policy in many other states, and we would note that state governments in North Carolina, Alabama, Florida and many other states do not grant the governor broad exemptions from  public records laws.