12/19/2014

Mixed grades and ‘incompletes’ for the 130th General Assembly

Public notice bill a highlight, but new exemptions nibble away at sunshine laws

By Dennis Hetzel, Executive Director

As the 130^th Ohio General Assembly ends its two-year term, it’s a good time to offer some grades to Gov. John Kasich and the General Assembly on the issues we follow.

On the plus side, an ONA-backed bill on public notices and newspaper websites became law and some other excellent bills passed. Some bills we liked and several we intensely disliked died. Some bad stuff got through, too, and it’s hard to escape the notion that the stirring language on transparency that forms the basis of Ohio’s open meetings and open records laws is being subjected to death by a thousand cuts.

For example, the “death penalty secrecy bill” (House Bill 663) — the subject of a separate article in this newsletter — would add exemption “cc” to the ever-growing list of open records exceptions in Ohio law. The designation “cc” means that, assuming Gov. Kasich signs this into law, we will have an eye-popping 29 exceptions in the statute, some of them quite sweeping, in addition to other exemptions that pepper other parts of the Ohio Revised Code.

Regarding that bill, we must give credit to legislators for working hard with us and other groups to improve a bill that was about as bad as a bill can get as introduced. However, we still see no real justification beyond anecdotal concerns for expanding the secrecy around Ohio’s execution procedures.

Here is a sampling of some of the highlights and lowlights of the past two years. My somewhat arbitrary grades are based on the status at the end of 2014:

Bills to improve transparency

Teleconference meetings: Several bills (HB 485, SB 155 and HB 179) established strong procedures for officials to “attend” public meetings by teleconferencing. These rules ensure the public will have access to the meetings as well as information about who was not present. ONA considers such proposals case-by-case. For example, we would not support remote attendance for most school board, county commissioner or city council meetings. These bills, however, provide good templates for times when it makes sense. Grade: A.

Digital public notices: HB 483 ensured that the digital version of legal notices published in Ohio’s newspapers will remain in the private sector in places where the public can find them and read them instead of on rarely visited and scattered government websites. In March, all newspaper notices will be posted at PublicNoticesOhio.com, operated by the Ohio Newspaper Association, at no additional charge to taxpayers or the public. Grade: A.

OhioCheckbook.com: Kudos to State Treasurer Josh Mandel for unveiling the best website I’ve seen to easily slice-and-dice how government spends money. (It’s so good that I worry that some officials will try to limit what is released.) Unfortunately, HB 175 didn’t become law, and it would have required this by statute for future treasurers. We will support the concept going forward. Grade: Incomplete.

Open meetings definition: We really liked SB 93, a bill to improve the definition of a public meeting in Ohio to include “information and fact-finding” sessions that already are open in many other states. Local governments remain opposed, but the sponsor, Sen. Shannon Jones, hopes to bring it back next year. Grade: Incomplete.

Private police records: HB 411 and HB 429 address the ridiculous situation in Ohio in which sworn police officers who work for private entities such as private colleges can detain and arrest people in secret with no public records obligations. Attorney General Mike DeWine is on our side. Unfortunately, neither bill moved, but we will try again in 2015. The Ohio Supreme Court also will be ruling on a case out of Otterbein University in Columbus. With any luck, the court will make the need for a statutory fix moot. Grade: Incomplete.

Removal of local officials: HB 10 as introduced raised concerns for us involving too much secrecy surrounding complaints of malfeasance in office that could lead to removal from office of local elected officials. Those were resolved, and all records become open at some point. Gov. Kasich is expected to sign this. Grade: B+.

Bills to reduce transparency

New open meetings exemption: A new exemption to the open-meetings law was inserted late in the process of HB 59 becoming law. It gives governmental bodies’ new latitude to meet secretly to discuss economic development matters. ONA was successful in narrowing the exemption and, for the first time, a unanimous vote by a public body is required to go into executive session. Grade: D.

JobsOhio oversight: A last-minute amendment to SB 67 added new restrictions on transparency of JobsOhio, sharply limiting the ability of the state auditor to get information and perform thorough audits. Transparency regarding JobsOhio’s status as a private agency receiving millions of taxpayer dollars remains an issue. Grade: F.

Concealed carry permits: We were concerned about a bill that would have removed the already severe limitation on journalist access to these permits. SB 60 never gained traction over the two-year session, but it probably will return in 2015. Grade: Incomplete.

Bills affecting the newspaper business

Municipal tax reform: ONA was part of a business-group coalition that supported HB 5, which Gov. Kasich is expected to sign. It made strides in straightening out what is often referred to as America’s most complicated and costly system of local income taxation. The reforms should save time and money for many ONA members, particularly those who have employees working in multiple jurisdictions. Grade: B.

Sales tax expansion: ONA was part of a broad coalition that defeated the governor’s 2013 budget proposal to expand the sales tax to advertising as part of tax reform. This would have been devastating to our industry, our advertisers and our communities. I am hopeful, but not certain, that we won’t see this return in Gov. Kasich’s 2015 budget proposal. Grade: A.

Again, this is not a comprehensive list, but I hope members can appreciate the scope of what we address from this. I also must give public kudos to our government relations team at Capitol Consulting in Columbus. Dan Jones, Belinda Jones and Dan Hurley have done a great job working with me to represent your interests.

Early next year, I’ll write about our 2015 legislative goals. There is much to propose, oppose and things to try to fix, particularly some bad Ohio Supreme Court decisions that are affecting journalists and citizens throughout Ohio.

As always, we welcome your suggestions and comments on our legislative priorities.