From BoiseDev.com
By Margaret Carmel
A new piece of legislation would give the public a cost-effective way to settle disagreements over access to government documents.
On Wednesday, Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, introduced a bill, authored with the Idaho Press Club, that would provide those who have been entirely or partially denied access to public records under the Idaho Public Records Act with a new way to settle disputes.
The bill would create a process in Idaho’s magistrate courts for filing a complaint regarding a denial of public records or charges for accessing them. This would also allow both the requester and the agency to submit affidavits outlining their arguments for a magistrate judge to review, similar to small claims court.
The bill proposes a $100 charge for members of the public to get the dispute in front of a magistrate, providing journalists and other public records requesters a way to settle public records disputes. Right now, the only remedy to a records dispute in Idaho law is to sue a public agency, which can be costly both for a member of the public and the public agency. A judge would issue a ruling in ten days, and either party could appeal, which would proceed to a lawsuit.
Ehardt said this will help save both requesters’ money, as well as taxpayers, because of the cost of defending these lawsuits. She pointed to a 2019 case in which the Idaho Press Club successfully sued Ada County for wrongfully denying access to public records, which cost the county $40,000 to defend.
“It seems that government agencies don’t always understand what should be available for the media and for other people requesting them,” she said.
This proposal would not add any full-time employees to the state or cost any funds because it would use judicial resources that already exist.
From BoiseDev.com