A priority piece of legislation for MHPC has been LD 1465: An Act to Amend the Laws Governing Freedom of Access. This bill would strengthen Maine’s Freedom of Access Act through provisions include timelines to comply with requests for public records, the designation of public access officers in each government agency, and the ability to request government records in a desired form. Here’s a quick overview of the bill.

The April public hearing on the bill proved what many transparency advocates already knew. Government transparency is not a liberal vs. conservative issue; it is an issue with defenders of government on one side and defenders of the public on the other. An excellent overview of the public hearing is posted on our blog.

The bill was referred to Maine’s Right to Know Advisory Committee for review, and recommendations to the full Legislature. Last week, Director of Communications Chris Cinquemani presented on LD 1465 to the advisory committee’s Legislative Sub Committee. You can see his presentation here. He noted how far outside the mainstream Maine’s weak Freedom of Access laws are compared to other states:

* 30 states have some deadline provision included in their open records law. Maine does not.
* 16 states have some provision respecting a requesters right to access records in a desired form. Maine does not.
* 8 states require an individual in each office to be responsible for overseeing public records requests. Maine does not.

LD 1465 would bring Maine more in line with other states when it comes to protecting citizens’ Right to Know. Transparency without deadlines isn’t transparency at all. Hopefully, members of the Right to Know Advisory Committee will agree.