Right to Know Law Oversight Commission Minutes - 22 May 2009 - Approved

Right to Know Law Oversight Commission Minutes
22 May 2009
Draft Minutes--Approved

Present: Sen. John H. Barnes, Jr.; Rep. James Garrity;, Rep. Kim Casey, Rep. Lucy Weber; Ron Rodgers, Esq., public member; Steve Judge, Esq., public member, John Lassey, Esq., NHMA; Peter Smith, Esq., NHMA; Carol Holden; Jim Kennedy;

Also Present: Bernard W. Folta; Rebekah Becker, NH Banking Department; Rep. Rick Watrous, Patrick Murphy, Senate Staff for Senator Cilley; Cordell Johnston, NHMA.

Rep. Casey stated her email address is caseycorps@aol.com. Previous emails were sent to an incorrect address.

The minutes of the February meeting were amended to reflect that Rep. Watrous had sued the City of Concord, not CCTV. The minutes of the February meeting were approved as amended.

Legislative update. HB 89 has been voted Inexpedient to Legislate.

HB 3 Senator Barnes said that Atty. Lassey and Atty. Smith had spoken against the bill in the Senate. Their concern is with the creation of a new evidentiary privilege, rather than on the effect on the Right to Know Law. The bill has little effect on the statute.

SB 197, reducing the number for a quorum, was voted Inexpedient to Legislate by the House. House members found it unacceptable that four members out of the whole committee could potentially act for the entire body.

Mission of Commission. Rep Casey expressed concern that after the Commission sunsets in 2010, there will be no ongoing entity with the expertise of this body. There ought to be a group that continues to look at sunshine law issues. Rep. Weber suggested focusing on the technology aspects until 2010, then consider broadening the mission explicitly to whatever the body thinks is important. Atty. Smith said that the multiplicity of scientific, technical and communications advances had revolutionized everything. The speed of the science revolution shows the need for a separate entity for the Right to Know law. The question is how to keep track of this stuff. It is not easy for the Judiciary Committee to keep up. However, it is wasteful to have a large commission where some members do not care.

(Tom Reid arrived.) Mr. Judge said there was an irony to the sunshine law commission being sunsetted. The commission was asked to work on the antenna of the ship, but found that the ship had holes below the waterline which had to be fixed first. Other things need to be addressed. Penalties are one. Atty. Rodgers said the commission should identify issues, produce reports, draft legislation and review legislation from other sources. The commission should take an official position, not just have individual members state their own positions to the legislature, as is now done. Ms. Holden said the commission should be proactive not reactive as they are on the county level. (Rep. Casey left for another meeting.)

Sen. Barnes said commission members make a difference in front of legislative committees. Atty. Lassey said there is a logistical issue. A bunch of bills were looked at, but the Commission did not get off the ground on taking a position. The Commission should focus the bulk of the meetings so we have the time to review and take a position early. Bills should be collected and distributed. Atty. Smith said the general sense was that the Commission should be reborn in a slightly different form. We should resolve what the entity should be and what it should look like. Senator Barnes suggested bringing in Chairs of Committees to see what they want. Rep. Weber said it was useful to have input that would not necessarily be found on the Judiciary Committee, as, for example, input from people in County government. (Mr. Pitts arrived.)

Atty. Rodgers spoke about the mission beyond the legislatiure. He would like to see outreach and public education. Legislation to extend the Commission should be designed with changes we think would make sense. It might make sense to name asubcommittees to draft legislation with the proposed changes. It was moved and seconded that the general sense of the Commission was that it should continue, and that a subcommittee should be appointed to look into the structure. All voted in favor. A subcommittee was appointed consisting of Atty. Rodgers, Ms. Holden, and Atty. Judge. Atty. Rodgers is to set up the meetings.

In discussing further the task of this subcommittee, it was the sense of the meeting that the purposes of the Commission are to advise the legislature, to propose legislation, and to educate and advise the public. Atty. Judge noted that Cordell Johnston does a lot of education. Atty. Smith said there is a massive need for education, and miles to go on that front. He insists on training for folks in his municipality. Atty. Kennedy noted that the Attorney General’s web site has not yet been updated, but it will be up within a month. (Senator Barnes left for another meeting.)

Two further subcommittees were approved by the Commission members, one on Cost Recovery and one on Electronic Communication.

Cost Recovery. The issue of how much a town may charge for providing copies of documents is an ongoing one. There is a cost in time as well as in materials. The statute is unclear what expenses may be recovered. The Attorney General’s policy is the actual costs of the copying—25 cents per page or 20 cents per PDF. This does not include the time to assemble the documents, nor does it include the costs of reviewing documents to ensure that no material that must remain confidential becomes public. Some towns add in the retrieval costs. The methods of charging for copies are very diverse. The state has employees whose whole job description is to ensure compliance with the Right to Know law. Their tasks would include analysis of whether the requested document is subject to disclosure, and whether redaction of certain information is required. Novel questions of redaction can involve significant attorney time. Another ongoing issue is the question of who qualifies as a “citizen” for purposes of RSA 91-A.

The Cost Recovery Subcommittee members are Atty. Kennedy, Mr. Pitts, and Mr. Reid. Atty. Kennedy will schedule the meetings..

The Electronic Communication subcommittee will consist of Atty. Lassey, Rep. Garrity, and Sen. Barnes. Atty. Lassey will schedule the meetings.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:40 am.
Respectfully submitted,
Lucy Weber