Herschlag: Your Right To Know

CONCORD, NH — The NH House Judiciary committee recently voted on recommendations for two bills relating to RSA 91A - the state’s Right to Know laws. The first bill HB1307, would have allowed a fee to be charged for those requesting information from their local government. This is what the bill states:

HB1307 - If the production of records for one requester in a calendar month exceeds 5 person- hours, the public agency shall require the requester to pay the personnel costs required during the month to complete the search and copying tasks. The personnel costs shall not exceed the actual salary and benefit costs for the personnel time required to perform the search and copying tasks. The requester shall pay the fee before the records are disclosed, and the public body may require payment in advance of the search.

I testified against this bill, this is what I had to say:

Who will determine the time it takes and how will that estimated time be determined? What will happen if the time is overestimated? What will happen if you don’t have the means to pay the fee? Who will determine which municipal employee will be assigned to retrieve the information? Could it be the highest paid person in the office?

A Union leader editorial suggested a compromise extending the number of hours before a charge occurs. And allowing unlimited access to lawyers and the press. But what makes lawyers and the press special. I don’t recall anything in the NH constitution that provides special access based on class, employment status or income.

There is nothing in Article 8 that bestows special status on different classes of people in our State.

Placing a fee, a charge, a cost to gain access to public records unreasonably restricts access to only those who can afford it. It makes government ‘open, accessible, accountable and responsive', only to those who have the financial resources to pay for it.

If you would like to see fewer RTK requests, then instead of adding layers of bureaucracy and costs to have access to information, you should look to legislation that makes it easier to identify and retrieve information. This bill like those that came before it, will punish the many under the pretense of correcting a problem created by a few. There is no excuse for making government less accessible

Unlike Article 8 of the NH Constitution which states in part: “…the public’s right of access to governmental proceedings and records shall not be unreasonably restricted.”, this bill will unreasonably restrict access to only those with the financial means to pay for access to the public’s records.

The Judiciary committee sent this bill to the House with the recommendation of inexpedient to legislate, the vote was unanimous.

The second bill HB1325, would require a list of all non public sessions. This bill left the Judiciary committee with a recommendation of ought to pass.

HB1325 - For all meetings held in nonpublic session, where the minutes or decisions were determined to not be subject to full public disclosure, a list of such minutes or decisions shall be kept and this list shall be promptly made available for public disclosure. This list shall identify the public body and include the date and time of the meeting in nonpublic session, the specific exemption under paragraph II on its face which is relied upon as foundation for the nonpublic session, the date of the decision to withhold the minutes or decisions from public disclosure, and the date of any subsequent decision, if any, to make the minutes or decisions available for public disclosure.

Every once in awhile there is good news to write about. Let’s hope the full House follows the recommendations of the Judiciary committee.