Transparency and accountability are twin pillars of a democratic system.
A key brick in those pillars is the Louisiana public records law, which gives citizens and groups a way to examine documents produced in the course of running government. Those documents often lay bare the hard and careful work that goes into enacting a specific policy or bill.
The law also gives citizens a way to uncover corrupt or unethical behavior by elected representatives. It provides transparency and encourages accountability.
But a handful of bills currently making their way through the legislative process could severely undermine access to Louisiana’s public records.
Senate Bill 482, filed by Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek, is the most pernicious of the lot. Under its provisions, many government records now considered public would be shielded from the public's view.
Cloud’s bill says “any records reflecting advisory opinions, recommendations and deliberations comprising part of a process by which governmental decisions and policies are formulated” would be exempt from the state’s public records law.
In other words, any document that goes into the decision-making process would be off-limits.
It’s hard to see how this exception would not be employed by any parish council, police jury, board of aldermen or school board that simply wants keep their operations secret.
We agree with Melia Cerrato at Tulane’s First Amendment Law Clinic, who called the proposal “extremely alarming” and “bad government.”
Former Gov. Bobby Jindal pushed through a similar exception for his office in 2009. His aides cited the “deliberative process” exception in shielding documents about a number of major decisions from public review. The law was reversed after Jindal left office.
Cloud’s bill has been referred to the Committee on Senate and Governmental Affairs.
Two other bills working their way through the legislative process could also impact the accessibility of Louisiana public records.
One by Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, would limit who can make public records requests to Louisiana citizens. Watchdogs have said Senate Bill 423 risks alienating out-of-state businesses and others who want to do business in the state but don't live here.
Another bill, by Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, would require ID checks on those who file requests.
Miguez told reporter James Finn that Senate Bill 502 is intended to cut down on voluminous requests sent to government agencies, some of which he suspects are being sent by people running artificial intelligence computer programs that spit them out rapid-fire and flood agencies in requests.
We sympathize with those in state offices who must deal with sometimes frivolous, excessive and even malicious public records requests.
But curbing them is not worth jettisoning transparency, which is so vital to citizens' ability to understand what public officials are doing in their name — and to hold them accountable for it.