BATON ROUGE (AP) — Two lawmakers want to open more of the Louisiana governor's office to scrutiny, proposing a bill that would
limit the expansive public records exemption used by Gov. Bobby Jindal to hide nearly all documents in his office.
Rep. Jerome "Dee" Richard, an independent from Thibodaux, and Sen. Rick Gallot, a Democrat from Ruston, filed the measure
this week to be considered in the legislative session that begins in April.
"It doesn't really make a lot of sense that
the governor's records are shielded the way they are. And considering
this is
the 'governor of transparency,' I don't understand why there would
be attempts year after year after year to avoid the transparency
that he's run on," Gallot said.
Under existing law, most of the documents
and emails in the governor's office are shielded from public view, with a
broad
exemption that hides anything considered part of the governor's
"deliberative process." The argument is that internal decision-making
is protected to allow for the free flow of ideas.
Richard's and Gallot's bill would strip that
deliberative process exemption and shield only internal communication
between
the governor, his chief of staff and his executive counsel, for a
period of up to 10 years. Security records and transportation
details could be confidential for up to seven days. Records would
be required to be maintained and archived.
A spokesman for Jindal didn't directly respond to a question about whether the governor would support or oppose the public
records legislation, instead saying the governor's office was reviewing bills as they are introduced.
But Gallot, a lawmaker for more than a decade, acknowledged similar bills seeking to expand public access to governor's office
records have failed in past years with opposition from Jindal and his predecessors. He doesn't necessarily expect improved
chances this time.
"The reality is it probably doesn't stand much of a chance of even making it out of committee, let alone out of the House
and through the Senate," Gallot said. "If nothing else it gives us the opportunity to have the conversation, and who's to
say that there might not be some version that is a compromise."
When running for office in 2007, Jindal
campaigned on improving government transparency in a state with a
reputation for backroom
political deals and public corruption.
Since then, the Republican governor has
opposed attempts to open more of his office's records. Jindal backed
legislation in
2009 that rewrote the governor's office public records exemption
to assert the deliberative process privilege, and that language
has been broadly interpreted and used to expand what can be kept
from public view.
Records in departments outside the governor's office have been withheld, and other agencies overseen by Jindal allies have
started shielding documents by claiming the privilege and asserting it is established in federal and state case law.
The legal claim has been used to avoid
turning over documents about controversial and politically sensitive
topics, including
the governor's school voucher program, disagreements over the
handling of a controversial tax credit program and budget cuts
to the LSU health care system and privatization efforts at
university-run hospitals.
Gallot said lawmakers didn't intend for the deliberative process exemption written in 2009 to extend to agencies outside the
governor's immediate office. He called that "definitely a stretch."