The bill makes significant, positive changes and we thank both the House and the Senate for strengthening the public right to know.
The new secretary of state, Jim Condos, applauded new language in the bill that changes the word “may” to “shall” be awarded legal fees when a citizen must go to court to secure information illegally withheld by government.
He also announced that he will conduct at least a dozen training sessions to teach government agents about the changes and how they can change their habits to comply.
Or as Condos gently put it, “A change of the culture and attitude towards access to public records and open meetings is necessary for both state and local government. As new legislation designed to provide for greater transparency in public records and open meetings ... it has become evident that local and state officials need training to better understand the law.”
We congratulate Jim Condos on his honesty and commitment to Vermonters. His training sessions, if his students are attentive and responsive, are as important a step toward transparency in government operations as the changes to the law itself.
If successful, the effort will protect state agencies and municipalities from the financial liability of illegally denying citizens access to information. The challenge to Condos will be to re-habituate recalcitrant officials emboldened over the years both by the endless statutory exemptions to the open records law and by an absence of recourse for citizens denied public information.
If he succeeds, we look forward to a new era of openness. We also won’t mind saving on the legal expenses we regularly incur to secure information that should, unequivocally, be free. This is all very good news for Vermont.
(This editorial appeared in The Caledonia Record on May 6, 2011.)
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