HB 1470 was introduced by Rep. Ober and seems to have been significantly amended in committee by Rep. Mahan. As amended, it contains provisions which, as I read them, require local government units (and pretty much any other state or local governmental entity) to, upon request, provide whatever government information the Legislative Services Agency requests at the expense of the governmental entity receiving the request. And it has to be provided in a format and within the time frame set by LSA. Specifically, LSA can demand government information from: the state, a state agency, a political subdivision, an agency of a political subdivision, a state educational institution, a separate body corporate and politic, and any other entity established by Indiana that performs a governmental function. Governmental information to which LSA is entitled is defined as “recorded information, regardless of the form or the media on which the information is recorded.”
Idea: Try not to give litigation strategy about suing the State to the State.
I used to work for LSA, and I’m a huge fan of their work. But I’m not a fan of this provision of HB 1470. First of all, if the legislature wants the records, it should pay for them. This should at least make them judicious about what they ask for. If it’s all free to you, it’s pretty easy to just ask for the kitchen sink.
Secondly, (and bear in mind I have a huge bias here) — but, if I’ve made strategic recommendations to my County government client, I’m not inclined to have that information disclosed to LSA. County government and state government are separate entities. Sometimes, we can be adverse entities. If the County sues the State, can LSA demand my memos to the County about the lawsuit? Can LSA demand the public defender or prosecutor’s thoughts about pending cases? This legislation does not seem to permit local government or state officials to withhold privileged information — rather, it simply requires LSA to “maintain the confidentiality of that information as required by federal law, Indiana law, or both.”
Unless I’m missing something that limits LSA’s ability to demand confidential information (attorney work-product being near and dear to my heart), this strikes me as pretty significant overreach.
The bill also has some generally laudable looking measures that are designed to streamline and make data more easily shared among state agencies, with local government, and with the public.
This seems to further undermine the already non-existent idea of “home rule.” All this talk, mostly by conservatives, of less government, more local control is clearly nonsense.
I’m guessing there is no companion rule to make it easier for citizens to get access to government data is there?
I’m not holding my breath.
I’d be happy if they went back to hosting the text of legislative bills instead of those PDF’s. It makes the bills that much harder to consume – which I assume is a feature, not a bug.
I agree so much with this. The amount of time it takes me to blog about a bill probably doubled because of the PDF switchover.