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Monday, March 14, 2005

Ind. Gov't. - Bill targets Open Door loopholes

Deanna Wrenn of the AP has a story in the South Bend Tribune today on Senator Beverly Gard's SB 310, last mentioned in this Feb. 2nd ILB entry. Some quotes:

A state lawmaker trying to plug holes in Indiana laws favoring open government wants to ban "serial" meetings and forbid votes on public business by telephone and over the Internet.

Legislation that would make such tactics a violation of the Open Door Law passed the state Senate unanimously in February and moved to the House for consideration.

"Most governing bodies try very hard, I think, to comply with open-door laws. But you find some that always try to find a loophole," said Sen. Beverly Gard, a Republican from Greenfield who sponsored the bill. "Governing bodies need to do their business in the eye of the public."

She said some public officials skirt the law by holding serial meetings, in which a mayor or council president, for example, meets with only a few members at a time to discuss public business. That avoids the requirement of a public meeting because there is no quorum -- a majority of members present. * * *

Gard's legislation also would prohibit officials from voting if they are not at the meeting during which the public business is being considered.

Last year, a dispute over "remote voting" began when Democrats linked Rep. Thomas Kromkowski, D-South Bend, to the Statehouse by telephone and video camera over the Internet for a key vote on a proposal for full-day kindergarten. The vote by Kromkowski, who was at home recovering from heart surgery, nudged the legislation to apparent passage. But under protest from Republicans and some Democrats, the vote was thrown out and the proposal failed.

Gard also sponsored a bill that would have allowed judges to impose a fine of up to $1,000 for an intentional violation of the state's Open Door Law or Access to Public Records Act. That bill did not make it out of a Senate committee.

The bill would have put much-needed teeth into Indiana's open-government laws, said Stephen Key, general counsel of the newspaper industry group Hoosier State Press Association. He said that without the threat of a financial penalty, those who control public records can "intentionally violate the law with no real consequences."

Key is hopeful the bill can be revived. "We'll have to build the case and show the need," he said.

That bill is Senate Bill 328. It did not make it out of Senate Committee.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 14, 2005 10:09 AM
Posted to Indiana Government