Oregon public agencies currently face no hard deadlines to respond to public records requests, so Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum formally proposed Wednesday that lawmakers impose a 15-business-day time limit.

Journalists say a deadline is badly needed, given the foot-dragging they face from agencies reluctant to reveal their dealings. But lawmakers and government representatives cautioned that some public bodies could legitimately struggle to meet that time frame.

A bill to enact the deadline is part of a larger package of proposed reforms recommended by a public records task force Rosenblum convened. It has bipartisan support.

During a Wednesday hearing before the Senate Government and Accountability Committee, some parties interested in the bill worried that the timeline was too long, especially for simple requests. Others feared it would punish agencies run by volunteers or agencies including school districts that scale way back during holiday breaks and the summer.

If lawmakers pass Senate Bill 481, an agency would have five business days to acknowledge it had received a public records request. Within the next 10 business days, the agency would need to respond to the request in full by delivering the records or give an estimated delivery date.

The bill would also protect agency workers who mistakenly release public records they should have withheld. And it would require the Attorney General to create a catalog of the 550 exemptions to Oregon's public records law. Michael Kron, special counsel to the AG, has already started this process.

In her speech to the committee, Rosenblum said access to public records is essential to establish trust in government.

"It is not always easy to embrace the principles of open government," she said. "But even though it can be hard, tough questions and interested constituents are simply part of the deal when it comes to running a Democratic government."

She acknowledged the bill does not address every problem with the state's public records law -the lack of a consistent fee structure, for instance - but said it's a good start.

Nick Budnick, a Portland Tribune reporter representing the Oregon Territory of the Society of Professional Journalists, said it's a crucial time to improve the rules under which agencies release documents to journalists and members of the public.

"Media outlets have fewer resources than ever," he told the committee. "They are less equipped than ever to deal with tactics of foot-dragging and delay."

Time frames

But Budnick said the 15-day timeline might encourage agencies to delay the release of records that would otherwise take as little as 30 seconds, such as forwarding an email.

"People talk a lot about the costs of responding to public records," he said. "They don't talk about the benefit of public records and the costs of not providing public records in a timely way. In our belief, those costs of not providing transparency are tremendous. Not as easy to quantify, but just as tangible."

He pointed to a 2015 investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive based on public records. Among those records, reporters found a forged invoice that qualified a solar company for $12 million in energy tax credits from the state's Department of Energy.

The journalists' revelation triggered an audit that found a host of other questionable activities that could save the state more than $12 million, Budnick said.

Morgan Allen, a lobbyist for the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators, said while school boards are generally supportive of the bill, the timeline needs to be fine-tuned.

He pointed to smaller school districts, some of which shut down completely on breaks, leaving no one to respond to public records requests.

For instance, if a request were to come in on the Friday afternoon before Spring Break, no one would be available to acknowledge receiving it within five business days, he said. Allen said the school districts would like an exemption from the requirement when schools are closed.

Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg, one of the bill's sponsors, said time frames set out in the bill are appropriate and should not be changed.

"We're dealing in some cases with some relatively complicated issues, and we need to make sure that we do it right," he said.

Requesters with agendas



Chris Trejbal, of the Association of Opinion Journalists, said the bill is not for journalists, but for everyday Oregonians who aren't familiar with public records law and don't have attorneys to help them appeal denied requests. This bill, particularly the catalog of exemptions, would provide clarity to members of the public making requests, he said.

Public record law, he said, exists to serve members of the public who want information about government activity and who want to hold their elected officials accountable.

Sen. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton, said he would be more comfortable if the bill were just for journalists.

"It's not the journalists asking for emails I have any problems with at all," he said. "It's the political opponents, literally the candidates coming in and using a public records request as a tool, as a way of getting even or slowing down things or a blogger who disagrees with a vote that we have."

Those with obvious political agendas shouldn't be able to use public records as a weapon, he said. Hass wants to see reforms address this increased exploitation of the state's public records law, he said.

Trejbal disagreed, saying those are examples of citizens engaging with their government. It's a citizen's right to use a public record in just about any way they see fit, including political purposes, he said. However, he pointed out that agencies faced with large or particularly onerous requests can charge a reasonable fee to deliver those records.

Committee Chair Sen. Chuck Riley, D-Hillsboro, said he thinks this bill is an important piece of the overall effort to reform public records law but it still needs work.

"We're going to be looking at this issue for a while," he said, "and hopefully we will come up with something really good at the end. And I think this is probably going to be a big piece of it."

-- Anna Marum

amarum@oregonian.com

503-294-5911

@annamarum