From the Raleigh News and Observer (3/27/09): Members of the state legislature can't exempt themselves from the state's public records law, according to a Raleigh lawyer who also heads a coalition of groups advocating open government.
Attorney Hugh Stevens, president of the N.C. Open Government Coalition, said he disagreed with the legal advice that Walker Reagan, an attorney on the legislature’s payroll, gave to Senate Leader Marc Basnight and House Speaker Joe Hackney late last year.
Reagan advised both men in December that many of the e-mail messages and letters they receive – from constituents, would-be state vendors and others – don’t have to be made available to the public because, he said, they fall under what Reagan said fell under a legislature exception to the state’s public records law.
His advice came in response to a request by a reporter from The News & Observer to see documents about the state’s troubled probation system on file in the offices of Basnight and Hackney.
“If the General Assembly were to claim exemptions for itself from obligation that it has imposed on other public officials the implicit message would be ‘openness for thee but not for me,'” Stevens wrote in a letter Wednesday. “Such a message invites cynicism and noncompliance on the part of those other officials.”
Stevens frequently represents The N&O on public information issues, including challenging the policy of former Gov. Mike Easley’s administration of destroying e-mail.
Gov. Beverly Perdue has pledged that her administration will be more open than Easley’s.
Stevens went on in his letter to ask Basnight to establish rules at the state Senate ensuring that the records will be preserved and kept open.
Hackney, who received a copy of Stevens’ letter, said he asked Reagan to respond but was otherwise non-committal.
“We’ll see who has the superior position,” he said. “I’ll hold my comments until this debate plays out.”
Attempts to reach Reagan and Basnight on Thursday were unsuccessful.
by Sarah Ovaska, News & Observer Staff Writer