To ensure that the public and media have access to public documents and meetings while also cutting down on requests meant just to harass public officials, a diverse commission has revised Maine’s Freedom of Access laws. Their changes include provisions requiring that copying fees be reasonable and that government entities respond to requests for information within a reasonable amount of time. The bill also allows towns to recoup the costs of searching for and compiling information that is requested. A review of what are estimated to be 500 exemptions to the law would also be undertaken to see if some exceptions are outdated and no longer needed.

Because the bill, LD 1957, is the result of work done by a committee of municipal, county, school and law enforcement officials, as well as the public and journalists, it has already had to overcome internal opposition. The result is a bill that protects the interest of the public and government entities. It should be passed by the Legislature.

The bill is the result of a November 2002 test of the current law. The Maine Freedom of Information Coalition had 100 “auditors” – an equal mix of journalists and citizen volunteers – ask for public documents at 156 town offices, 79 school superintendent offices and 75 police stations. The unannounced visits revealed that the Right To Know Law does not always work as intended. For example, the auditors were often asked for their identity, although they are not required to give it under the law. Some departments refused to turn over public information such as police logs and superintendent contracts. One police department charged $8 a page to photocopy public records.

Although police departments were flagged as the least cooperative, they were the quickest to respond to the audit by convening several training sessions to educate department heads about the law.

Such efforts are helpful, but the clarifying and cleaning up of the act, first passed in 1959, will go further in ensuring that public information really is available to the public. Although some members of the access committee wanted to cap copying fees at 20 cents a page, municipal officials warned that communities shouldn’t lose money while supplying documents to the public and the media.

They are right, although the bill’s “reasonable” fees language is open to interpretation and may have to be resolved in court. Even if LD 1957 is passed, much work remains to be done. Members of the access committee, for instance, would then set about finding all the exemptions to the access law written into other statutes.

In the end, if government entities operate openly the public will be better served.