(Host) A legislative committee has begun to review the long list of exemptions that currently exists to the state’s public records laws.
Secretary of State Jim Condos says the goal is to reduce the number of exemptions to open records – which now stands at 240 – and make government more transparent.
(Condos) "There’s a lot of exemptions which are necessary. I think what this offers us is an opportunity for this group of legislators to actually take them one by one and look to see if they need to be clarified, they need to be adjusted or reworded."
(Host) The study committee grew out of a bill that passed this year, which Condos calls the first major re-write of public records laws since 1976.
That bill made other changes to the open records law. State agencies are now required to pay attorney fees for someone who requests documents, then goes to court to obtain them, and wins.