A New Jersey state appellate court has upheld a public records fee of $1,900 for government records that were requested by a freelance journalist because several attorneys were needed to assist with the request.

Journalist Janon Fisher fought the fee, but the court decided that the charge was reasonable. The court said the state Attorney General’s Office had legitimate reasons for assigning five attorneys to collect and review the public records that were requested.

In a 3-0 decision, the court panel wrote that the Attorney General’s office “reasonably determined that those attorneys could identify the records responsive to the OPRA request and any privileged parts of those records more expeditiously and reliably than clerical staff.”

New Jersey state attorneys spent 52.5 hours to search and review thousands of e-mail communications and other state records to locate the requested documents. The total cost to fill the public records request was $1,877.93. The cost of the public records request was determined by multiplying the total hours by the hourly wage of the lowest-salaried deputy attorney general, which is $35.77 an hour.

The appellate court panel found that in addition to copying costs, New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act allows for a public agency to impose a “special services charge” if production of the records involves “an extraordinary expenditure of time and effort.”

New Jersey state attorneys said that Fisher’s records request took the state nearly two years to complete and included the review of more than 15,000 emails and electronic files.

Source: NewsDay.com

This is an election year – a time when public records requests on politicians and candidates peaks. Wisconsin’s WCCO is reporting on a story involving that state’s Republican Party and its filing of a public records requests on a Democrat county supervisor.

A spokesman for the Wisconsin Republican Party, Kirsten Kukowski, confirmed to WCCO that a request has been made for two years of public records on Brown County Supervisor Jack Krueger.

The public records request is seeking to obtain all communications, including, e-mails, phone records and document files involving Krueger from April 15, 2006 to the present.

Krueger is a member of the Brown County Democratic Party and former chairman of Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District Democrats.

Krueger says that he has no idea what the public records request is ultimately after.

Krueger is also the vice chairman of the Brown County Board. He plans to run for board chairman when the new County Board meets on April 15. Kukowski hopes the public records request will be filled before Krueger takes on any new position.

According to Lynn Vanden Langenberg, director of Brown County’s administration department, most of the requested records have been gathered and sent to Brown County Corporation Counsel John Jacques.

Jacques will review the records, like he does with all public records requests, and then Krueger will review them.

By law, there is a three-day period for elected public officials to review public records that are requested about themselves and make clarifications to those records.

Source: WCCO.com

The Tennessean is reporting on the growing complexity of public records law in Tennessee and the increasing difficulty involved in obtaining public records in that state.

Tennessee opened government records to the general public in 1957, but lawmakers and judges have taken steps over the last 50 years to close many of those records.

There are currently more than 250 exemptions to the Tennessee Public Records Act on the books.

Proponents of public records argue it should not be easy to close public records in Tennessee. They believe that the exemptions are broadly written, which enables needless government secrecy.

There is even a bill moving through the Tennessee state legislature that would close public records that identify citizens licensed to carry handguns.

The executive director for the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, Frank Gibson, says, “any special interest who has a friend in the legislature can get records closed fairly easily.”

According to Charles Davis, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition, Tennessee, compared with other states, falls in the middle in terms of the way it closes public records.

Davis points out that Florida has nearly 1,000 closed records. Although the number seems high, Davis claims that Florida should serve as a model for other states, because each exemption is extremely narrow and specifies the exact part of the record that is being closed from public access. Specific criteria must be met in order for a public record in Florida to be closed.

In comparison, Tennessee public records can be entirely closed when only a small piece of information should be kept secret.

Public records laws differ from state to state, however, it is generally accepted that secret information such as a person’s financial records or medical records should be off limits to the public.

In addition, information on national security or trade secrets are considered closed records. It’s also generally understood that law enforcement professionals need to keep investigations secret while the case is open.

However, some public records exemptions aren’t easy to excuse.

In Tennessee, morbidity and mortality records on nursing home residents is kept confidential.

Gibson says that educating the public on the importance of open records is one of the biggest challenges to changing public records laws.

“The problem is, citizens do not seem too concerned until it is an issue that involves them,” says Gibson. “If it’s emotional enough, like the gun issue, you’re able to argue, ‘Hey, there’s states giving gun permits to convicted felons — are you sure you want to close this?”

Source: The Tennessean

WikiNews is reporting that over 600 pages of official Church of Scientology ‘Operating Thetan’ documents have been posted on the WikiLeaks website.

According to the report, some parts of the ‘Operating Thetan’ (OT) manual have been leaked before, but this is believed to be the first time the full version of the document has been made public.

The 612 page Scientology manual was written by L. Ron Hubbard and contains instructions for the eight different Operating Thetan levels including ‘clear’ and OT8.

The WikiLeaks.org website is devoted to publishing private, classified and censored information from government and corporations around the world.

Source:WikiNews Reports

The Associated Press is reporting that Superior Court Judge Glenna Hall from Washington state’s King County has ruled that inmate Allan Parmelee could not be stopped from making public records requests.

Parmelee is a convicted arsonist who was imprisoned for firebombing cars of two attorneys. Since his imprisonment he has been filing public records requests seeking to obtain information on prosecutors, prison guards, state troopers, judges and other people who helped convict him.

Parmelee has filed hundreds of public records requests since his imprisonment.

Prosecutor Dan Satterberg asked Hall to allow his office to ignore the pending requests and also to bar Parmelee from filing additional public records requests unless he obtains court permission.

Satterberg believes that Parmelee is using the requests to harrrass law enforcement officials.

Judge Hall’s decision stated that Satterberg’s legal argument against the requests stretched public records laws.

Hall’s decision requires that some of Parmelee’s pending requests be filled — such as his requests for pictures of King County employees, including judges; lists of names, job titles and pay scales. They all are public records.

Hall stated “He has been characterized as not only annoying or vocal, but violent,” she wrote. “Even so, the law requires the court to presume that access to the public records he seeks is in the public interest, and not make him show his purpose.”

Parmelee stated that he was overall pleased with the ruling.

The prosecutor’s office is deciding whether or not to appeal the decision.

Parmelee was convicted at a second trial in 2004 of first-degree arson for firebombing one vehicle belonging to his ex-wife’s divorce lawyer and another belonging to an attorney who represented his roommate’s ex-girlfriend.

His first trial ended in a mistrial because he was found to have personal information about the jurors.

Under the Washington’s public records law, much personal information is exempt from release.

If a record is public, agencies can’t decide to release it to one person but not another. There is no limit on how many public record requests person can file.

Source: Associated Press