By Michael Gerstein
Associated Press
LANSING (AP) — Michigan lawmakers have put together a series of proposed bills that would allow citizens and journalists to file open records requests with the governor’s office and the Legislature.
A group of nine Republicans and Democrats sponsor bills in the package.
Michigan is one of two states without blanket open records request laws covering the governor’s office and the Legislature. Its 40-year-old Freedom of Information Act explicitly exempts the governor’s office as well as lawmakers, though financial documents, such as expense reports, are subject to disclosure under the state constitution and legislative rules.
House Speaker Kevin Cotter said he’s open to reviewing the 10-bill package, which he called the “best proposal to reform FOIA I have seen to date.”
“This is a complicated issue, and it will undoubtedly see revisions after public comment in committee. But this is something we can work with,” he said in a statement.
Lawmakers introduced the package during national Sunshine Week, which celebrates transparency and openly accessible public records.
State Rep. Ed McBroom, the Vulcan Republican who’s leading the transparency push with Southfield Democratic Rep. Jeremy Moss, said the measure has bipartisan support.
Both began working on the legislation long before criticism from some Democrats that Gov. Rick Snyder cherry-picked the thousands of documents related to the Flint water crisis that his office released voluntarily, Moss said Wednesday.
Personal records, such as doctors’ appointments, human resources files, ongoing internal or legislative investigations, litigation or constituent
communications, would be exempt under the legislation. Internal advisory communications in the Legislature, confidential trade or financial records and records from legislative caucuses also would not fall under their proposed Legislative Open Records Act.
For the talk of bipartisan support, Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof is “not enthusiastic” about sharpening the open records law, according to the West Olive Republican’s spokeswoman, Amber McCann.
But first-term Rep. Lee Chatfield, a Republican from Levering who sponsors one of the measures, had strong words for those opposed.
“Any elected official who opposes transparency is unfit to hold public office,” he said.
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