SALEM -- Gov. Kate Brown announced on Friday that she selected a lawyer who has represented both individuals trying to obtain government records and agencies looking to protect theirs to become the state's first public records advocate.

Ginger McCall is currently a lawyer in the U.S. Department of Labor where she handles matters including Freedom of Information Act lawsuits.

At Brown's behest, the Legislature created the position of public records advocate to mediate disputes between the public and state and local government agencies over which records should be released or kept confidential. McCall's appointment to the position will be up for confirmation by the Senate in February.

"This is another step towards the transparency and accountability Oregonians expect of state government," Brown said in a press release. "I'm proud of the progress we've made recently to enact the most substantial public records reforms of the past 40 years, and Ginger's work with the Public Records Advisory Council will ensure Oregon's commitment to transparency continues into the future."

Creating the position was one element in a larger reform adopted by the 2017 Legislature. The changes were intended to address delays that contributed to a backlog of public records requests near the end of former Gov. John Kitzhaber's time in office. Brown, who became governor when Kitzhaber resigned in early 2015 amid an influence peddling scandal, criticized her predecessor's slow responses, saying "It was clear transparency was not a priority in the prior administration."

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There was some debate last year whether the public records advocate should work out of the Secretary of State's archives division or the governor's office. In the end, the new Public Records Advisory Council and the advocate were both located at the state archives.

McCall has held a variety of jobs that touched public records and the federal Freedom of Information Act over the years. She directed an open government program at a public interest research organization called the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and she served on the Freedom of Information Act Federal Advisory Committee run by the National Archives and Records Administration. In that capacity, McCall represented both requesters and the government, and she twice led the development of recommendations to improve the Freedom of Information Act.

Steve Suo, watchdog editor for The Oregonian/OregonLive and member of the Public Records Advisory Council, said the group agreed that McCall was an excellent candidate. "Ginger McCall won broad support from people like me, who are in the business of fighting for public records, and government folks who have to answer public records requests," Suo wrote in an email. "I think she'll be strongly committed both to the cause of transparency and to making Oregon's law work for everyone."

-- Hillary Borrud; Twitter: @hborrud; 503-294-4034