An attorney for the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, a New Orleans-based watchdog nonprofit tasked with ensuring fair taxation and reform, said a proposed bill that was withdrawn from the Legislature could have decimated transparency and the public’s right to access public records.
House Bill (HB) 470, sponsored by Rep. Rodney Lyons (D-New Orleans), was pulled from the current legislative session on May 12.
In an interview with the Louisiana Record, Sarah Harbison, Pelican Institute attorney, said she did not know the reason the proposed bill was pulled.
The legislation would alter current laws about officer body cameras, which exempt public access to video footage if it violates a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy. The legislation would have extended the law to include video on auto dash-mounted cameras. However, a report on the Pelican Institute website said the law would extend to all public records, not just body or dash cameras.
In addition, the bill would have made it more difficult for citizens requesting public records to recoup attorney fees if they were sued for making such requests.
Harbison was asked why the bill would make it more difficult.
“Under current law, the only incentive of the government to comply with a public records request is under the threat of (their own) attorney fees if they didn’t comply,” she said. “Under the proposed law, the changes would require the requester to show that the custodian (agency) acted unreasonably.”
Harbison said a reporter seeking public records from a government agency has to rely that what the agency gives them (records) is accurate.
“You have to take them at their word,” she said. “The unreasonable requirement, I don’t know how the public is supposed to prove that. It’s not just reporters, it’s also taxpayers looking for their own records.”
Harbison said the government could sue the records requester and the requester would have to defend themselves in court, which would involve legal fees. She agreed the legislation would raise the bar for getting legal fees and added it is a threat to government transparency.
“It would kill the incentive to act (provide records), to cooperate with the public,” she said.
The issue is now dead for the time being in the State House, she added.
The bill's status can be found at legiscan.com.