PIERRE - A task force created by Attorney General Larry Long will have one last chance to agree on a bill to make more state and local government records available to the public.

The group spent three hours Thursday reviewing proposed changes in open-records laws but didn’t come to a final agreement on a bill to introduce.

Long said he and his staff will rewrite the proposed bill to reflect Thursday’s discussion and circulate it among the task force members to see whether it has general support to be introduced in the legislative session that opens Jan. 8.

The task force reached a formal consensus on a proposed method for settling fights over government records, agreeing with a bill that would give the existing Office of Hearing Examiners authority to decide those disputes. The goal is a quick and relatively inexpensive procedure to settle such disputes.

Both the records bill and the dispute resolution measure were sparked by a report from Long’s staff on a lengthy review of the status of state and local government records. The review found that some documents clearly are public information, and others are confidential because of specific laws. It also found that many records fall in a gray area, with neither a requirement that they be open nor a specific need to be secret.

That report showed “a clear need for reform,” Diane Best of Long’s staff told the task force.

“Currently, the law says any record that’s required to be kept by state statute is public,” Best said.

The bill the task force studied Thursday would broaden that somewhat, she said, requiring that any record required to be “filed with, kept by or made by” an agency would be open.

She also said it would open more financial records to the public.

Exactly how much openness the law should require has been a sticking point throughout the task force deliberations.

Some members have argued that the law should start with a presumption that all government records are public unless a convincing case can be made for confidentiality. Those members agree that issues such as security concerns, personal information and trade secrets would be reasons to close records.

Other members have balked at such a sweeping position. They argued that the task force should focus on classes of records that create the most controversy and see whether compromises can be reached in those instances.

The bill being considered by the task force leans toward the second approach, a sort of incremental openness. It includes a statement of legislative intent, “that a free society is maintained when government is responsive and responsible to the public and when the public is aware of governmental actions.”

Two Republican legislative leaders, Sen. David Knudson of Sioux Falls and Rep. Larry Rhoden of Union Center, also have said they’ll sponsor an open records bill in the next session.

Reach Terry Woster at 605-280-0522
Task force fails to agree on how to push openness in Legislature
Argus Leader