Records access at issue in House
Posted by orarchives on May 1, 2007
<< via the Albany Democrat Herald>>
By Hasso Hering
Albany Democrat-Herald
Two Senate-passed bills intended to improve public access to state and local government records in Oregon are pending in the House Judiciary Committee.
Whether they get a hearing is up to Rep. Greg Macpherson, D-Lake Oswego, the lawyer and 1968 Albany Union High School graduate who heads the committee as chairman.
He couldn’t be reached for this story, but a committee staffer said hearings were likely.
Senate Bill 554, which the Senate passed 28-0 on April 17, would require a public body to respond “as soon as practicable” to a request for a public record. It also requires units of government to to have a written procedure for making public records available, including a list of possible charges and a statement of how the charges are determined.
The Senate passed the other bill, SB 671, by a vote of 26-1 on April 12. It requires a public body to release a condensed version of factual information in a public record when the record itself is otherwise exempt from disclosure under the attorney-client privilege.
