Brownback says he hasn’t read proposal to strengthen open records laws

TOPEKA — Gov. Sam Brownback says he hasn’t reviewed the attorney general’s recommendations on how to strengthen the state’s open record laws.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt sent the Legislature a proposal this week to close a loophole in the Kansas Open Records Act that allows public officials to conduct official business on private e-mail. The recommendation would make private e-mails sent by a public official in the course of their official duty subject to the law.

The issue has been a topic of discussion in Topeka since The Eagle reported in January that Brownback’s budget director had used a private e-mail account to send lobbyists a draft of the state’s budget several weeks before it was unveiled to lawmakers and the general public.

“I don’t have much response on it,” Brownback said Friday when asked about Schmidt’s proposal.

He said he hasn’t looked through Schmidt’s recommendations because he has been focused on other issues, including trying to fill a budget hole and dealing with the departure of the ride-hailing service Uber from the state.

“I haven’t focused on it much. We’ve had plenty of other issues to wrestle with,” Brownback said.

Schmidt and Brownback both spoke Friday at an annual event honoring police officers who died in the line of duty. Asked about the open records issue afterward, Schmidt said he hopes the process of updating the 30-year-old act will move forward.

“It’s not a simple fix, but it is fixable. So we put it out there, so hopefully somebody will pick it up,” Schmidt said. “We just wanted to try and contribute to a solution.”

The loophole means that if a public official wanted to exclusively use private e-mail he or she could, under current Kansas law, without having the communications become public.

Brownback’s office has said the administration has no policy for when it is or isn’t acceptable to use private e-mail.

Twenty-six states consider public officials’ private e-mails to be public record if they deal with official business. At the federal level, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton exclusively used private e-mail during her tenure as U.S. secretary of state.

The Legislature passed a bill earlier Friday that, if signed by Brownback, would empower the attorney general’s office to determine if public agencies had violated the state’s open record or open meetings act and to resolve the issue.

Agencies found in violation could face fines and be required to undergo training. Empowering the attorney general to handle an issue provides an alternative to settling it through litigation.

The measure passed the Kansas House on Friday by a vote of 95-15 and the Senate on Thursday by a vote of 38-0.

Schmidt, whose office helped craft the legislation, praised the Legislature in a news release for its commitment to open government.

This story was originally published May 8, 2015 at 3:33 PM with the headline "Brownback says he hasn’t read proposal to strengthen open records laws."