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Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Ind. Gov't. - Indiana's public access law featured

"Keeping secrets: Hoosiers are wrongly denied access to meetings and information in half of their requests to governmet" is the headline to a front-page story in today's Indianapolis Star by John Strauss. The office of the Indiana Public Access Counselor is featured.

The story points out that while the agency is effective, its law is toothless at the administrative level:

But when agencies don't release records or open up public meetings, citizens generally have only one very limited, and expensive, option: filing suit.

"You can have an opinion from the public access counselor, but it's just an opinion. In order to enforce it, you have to go to court," said Warren Auxier, a Hanover business owner who has filed three formal complaints against agencies with the access counselor.

Members of the public have to pay for their own legal help, he noted, while the agency they're challenging is using public funds.

Auxier won a ruling from the public access counselor last year that entitled him to documents from a Southern Indiana economic development agency. When that office refused to comply, he filed suit.

Auxier "won" the records he sought, through a settlement with Madison Industrial Development Corp. But it cost him $12,000 in attorney fees.

Access the Auxier opinion here.

More from the story:

In Fort Wayne, Charles Garnette won the right to avoid dollar-a-page copying fees at a county office by photographing the records with a digital camera.

Garnette went to the Allen County recorder's office in April to look at documents on a computer. As he used a small digital camera to make copies, an employee told him to stop.

Garnette made a formal complaint. In the opinion that resulted, Davis said the issue had not come up before, but that a digital camera clearly fit within the meaning of the law allowing people to "inspect and copy" public records.

Access the "camera" opinion here.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 11, 2005 06:54 AM
Posted to Indiana Government | Indiana Law