Happy Sunshine Week: Celebrating your right to know…

This week is “Sunshine Week,” which celebrates open government and citizens’ right to know. Here in Idaho, we celebrated today with birthday cake at the state Capitol to mark the 25 ^th birthday of the Idaho Public Records Law, which was enacted in 1990; it was delicious. Also in honor of Sunshine Week, the AP has a report out today examining the public records implications when state agencies contract with private companies; the public records law says the records about public business remain public, but the AP’s experience shows they’re not always so easy to get. You can read AP correspondent Rebecca Boone’s full report here .

Also in honor of Sunshine Week and the Public Records Law’s quarter-century anniversary, Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden has penned an op-ed piece; you can read it here . “The statute adopted by Idaho lawmakers in 1990 is as critical now as it was then to fostering public trust, accountability and transparency in our state and local government,” Wasden wrote. “Yet as we honor the steps we’ve made to open government here in Idaho, there is still cause for concern. Currently, we’re engaged in a national debate on public records laws and the risks taken by government officials who, for whatever reason, choose to ignore the spirit of those laws. The wisdom offered more than 50 years ago by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark still resonates loud and clear: ‘Nothing so diminishes democracy as secrecy.’” Wasden notes the national controversy over Hillary Clinton’s emails, and writes that in Idaho, they’d be public.

Gov. Butch Otter, in a guest opinion in the Idaho Statesman on Sunday, wrote, “Open, transparent and accessible government is fundamental to a successful free society. That’s why I appointed a public records ombudsman in April 2014 after hearing from constituents that existing law provides only a burdensome remedy for challenging public record request denials.” You can read the governor’s article here ; he notes that his public records ombudsman, Cally Younger, spearheaded a committee of stakeholders that recommended legislation this year to move the Idaho Open Meeting Law, the public records law and the Ethics in Government laws into a single title of state code for “Transparent and Ethical Government,” to honor them and make them easier to find.

While we were eating cake in the 4 ^th floor rotunda today, the Senate voted unanimously in favor of that legislation, HB 90 and HB 91, which were sponsored in the Senate by Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg. Having earlier passed the House – also unanimously – the bills are on their way to the governor’s desk.

“This legislation shows that Idaho is serious about increasing transparency – starting with making its laws as easy to navigate as possible,” Otter wrote in his piece. “Still being considered are proposals to formalize the ombudsman role and give it authority to review public record request denials and issue advisory opinions.”

Another Sunshine Week article this week was written by Idaho Statesman reporter Cynthia Sewell, who told the story of a Pocatello couple who turned to crowd-sourcing to raise the money for a $1,235 fee that Idaho State University assessed for their public records request; you can read that story here .

Also in honor of Sunshine Week, the Idaho Press-Tribune has an article here on differences between how open meeting laws work in Idaho and Oregon. Idaho Statesman reporter Bill Dentzer has a video interview here with Attorney General Wasden. And Boise State Public Radio has a story in the works; when it’s available, I’ll post a link here.