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Subject: NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS, PUBLIC RECORDS CHIEF SEEK INFO COMMISSION
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NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS, PUBLIC RECORDS CHIEF SEEK INFO COMMISSION

State House News Service

March 24, 1999
www.statehousenews.com

MARCH 24, 1999....MPN....Government would be more accessible to the public
and the media under a public records law overhaul supported today by the
state's overseer of public records and the director of the Massachusetts
Newspaper Publishers Association.

A bill to create a Freedom of Information Commission, which would have
subpoena powers and the authority to levy civil fines, is designed to put
teeth into the existing law. It would also curb the number of contested
record requests that currently wind up before the attorney general or
district attorneys, said Carolyn Kelly MacWilliam, state supervisor of
public records.

MacWilliam said fiscal sanctions and subpoena powers would compel
government officials to comply with investigations and produce public
records for those who seek them in a timely way.

"Although regulations currently allow the supervisor to utilize any means
reasonably necessary to resolve a public records dispute, the supervisor is
not given subpoena powers," MacWilliam said. "Accordingly, it is extremely
difficult to reach a determination when the supervisor's office encounters
a hostile or uncooperative government custodian."

MacWilliam now has the power to issue administrative orders requiring
government officials to release public records. To have orders enforced,
she must refer them to the attorney general or a district attorney. In
cases where the records' custodian is a state agency, the attorney general
must decide whether to represent the agency or the public records division.
And the AG or DA must decide whether it's worth the effort to bring the
case to the next level - Superior Court. Under the bill, the supervisor
would instead refer cases of compliance failure to the commission.

Sanctions would help with enforcement, she said. "It can be difficult to
achieve compliance with an administrative order when an official realizes
there is no civil penalty associated with his non- compliance," MacWilliam
said.

Bill Plante, director of the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers
Association, said he had filed a similar bill ten years ago and was around
in the 1950s for the passage of the open meeting law. Plante said the
state's public records office, under Secretary of State William Galvin, has
done an "exemplary job," but maintained that the state as a whole has
"fallen behind" since the 1950s.

Citing voter apathy and a general lack of interest in government by many,
Plante said members of the public have more trouble accessing public
records than reporters. The bill would "greatly enhance" the existing
process. "Public access is really what we're talking about here," he said,
adding that records sought by reporters usually prove to be public records.

As proposed, the five-member commission would include two gubernatorial
appointees and one each by the Secretary of State, Attorney General and
Mass. District Attorneys Association.

In 1996, the public records division handled 702 cases, with 833 in 1997
and 801 in 1998. All of those cases involved investigations into the
refusal to release requested government records. The division also fields
thousands of phone calls from those interested in accessing or denying
access to records.

The bill (H 1098) is sponsored by Galvin and State Administration Committee
co-chairman Rep. Geoffrey Hall (D-Westford). It was heard at today's public
hearing at the State House.

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