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Friday, April 21, 2006
Ind. Law - More on "Info-hungry citizens making a difference in government openness"
"Win a battle, lose the war, or NOT" might be the motto of Ryan Nees, Kokomo student who successfully sued the mayor of Kokomo to turn over the mayor's e-mail list as a public record, only to have the General Assembly pass a law saying that in the future such a list is protected.
But since then Ryan has been awarded the $11,000 in attorney fees his suit racked up, plus become a national figure, a poster boy for public access, as indicated by this story today in the Washington Post, by local AP reporter Ken Kusmer. Some quotes from the Post story:
INDIANAPOLIS -- In nine months, Ryan Nees has gone from a precocious, 15-year-old filmmaker to an open records activist whose latest foray cost the city of Kokomo more than $11,000.Nees won that amount in attorney fees this week after the city lost a lawsuit he brought to force Kokomo Mayor Matt McKillip to turn over the e-mail addresses of subscribers to the city's electronic newsletter. Nees sued under Indiana's open records law after receiving campaign messages upon subscribing to the newsletter.
"I didn't so much become an advocate for public access until I was denied," said Nees, who will join journalists and advocates at the national Freedom of Information Summit, which runs Friday and Saturday in Indianapolis. "There was a certain amount of indignation there." * * *
Nees, now a 16-year-old sophomore at Western High School outside Kokomo, was seeking information last summer on a city disciplinary hearing that he documented in a student film about censorship. Getting those records was no problem, but when he went after the list of the 1,400 e-mail subscribers _ which he suspected the Republican mayor was using for political purposes _ the young Democratic activist met resistance.
He enlisted the state's public access counselor, Karen Davis, and took the mayor to court. On Monday, Judge Lynn Murray ordered the city to pay the full amount of fees sought by Nees' attorney.
The victory was bittersweet. The Indiana General Assembly has also amended state law to let government officials withhold lists of e-mail addresses.
Davis said people like Nees are making a difference. "Most people would think of a 16-year-old as pretty powerless," she said. "It really is amazing what one individual did in that one case."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 21, 2006 09:38 AM
Posted to Indiana Law