Open government advocate still has concerns over revised open records bill passed by Kentucky House

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A closely scrutinized open-records measure dealing with public access to the flow of electronic messages among government officials won passage in the Kentucky House on Tuesday.

The bill’s lead sponsor, Republican state Rep. John Hodgson, backed off the original version that had spurred a strong backlash from open-records advocates.

Those advocates have warned that the revised version still contained loopholes that would hurt the public’s ability to scrutinize government business.

It would do so by limiting a public agency’s duty for producing electronic information, applying only to material stored on a device that’s “agency property or on agency-designated email accounts,” open government advocate Amye Bensenhaver said in an email after the House vote.

The new version of House Bill 509 cleared the House on a 61-31 vote to advance to the Senate. Republicans have supermajorities in both chambers.

It would update provisions of Kentucky’s open records law that were crafted long before the advent of emails, text messages and other forms of electronic communication, Hodgson said.

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