LOUISIANA, USA — The state’s public records law is vital to uncovering fraud, waste and abuse in government by elected officials and others trusted with taxpayer dollars.
Stories based on documents obtained by WWL Louisiana exposed corruption by former St. Tammany Sheriff Jack Strain, mismanagement by the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board and criminal wrongdoing by former Mayor Ray Nagin.
“The money that was coming in after Katrina that he was then funneling to help his sons get granite countertop business and things like that, that ended up sending him to prison,” WWL Louisiana Investigative Reporter David Hammer said.
Public data also led to “Call Waiting” a series of stories about long delays in NOPD response times.
“The public records law is the stock in trade of all journalists and especially investigative journalists just to shine a light on the activities of elected and public officials and how they spend our money,” WWL Louisiana Investigative Reporter Mike Perlstein said.
But under a bill now moving through the Louisiana legislature, many now open records such as emails, text messages and other communications produced by state and local leaders would be off limits.
“Why would you keep the public in the dark about where its tax dollars are being spent by the officials that they elect,” Perlstein said. This is basically darkening the body of knowledge to the general public to make wise decisions.
“We won’t know if your elected officials are misusing your money if we can’t see these documents,” Hammer said.
The measure by Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Ville Platte would shield documents containing "advisory opinions, recommendations and deliberations.”
“Protecting elements of deliberative process safeguards the process through which governmental decisions and policies are shaped and formulated,” Cloud told the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.
Members pushed back on the bill when it came up in committee on Wednesday.
“Could this be a shield that could prevent any executive from saying, from producing information by just saying or claiming that a decision hasn’t been made,” Sen. Cary Carter, D-New Orleans asked.
“I think the public does have a right to know some of those things and we need to be very careful about being over broad in granting some of these types of exceptions,” Sen. Gregory Miller, R-Luling said.
The bill also drew a blistering rebuke from First Amendment attorney Scott Sternberg representing the Louisiana Press Association.
“Let’s talk about what this is really about, this exception is a repeal of the Public Records Law,” Sternberg said. “I really care about people being able to see what their government is spending their money on.”
The committee agreed to advance the measure to the full Senate after Sen. Cloud promised to make changes.
“I’m not going to move the bill on the floor until I get it in a better posture that we can all kind of coalesce around,” Cloud said.
In its current form, critics argue the bill is overly broad and intentionally vague.
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