Gov. Kate Brown is open to housing a public records advocate in the Secretary of State’s office rather than under her control, Emily Matasar, Brown’s counsel on government accountability issues, said Monday.
Senate Bill 106, filed at the request of Brown, would create a public records advocate. The advocate would serve as a mediator between public agencies and journalists or citizens to help resolve disputes over the disclosure of public records.
Brown, who came into office when former Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned over an influence-peddling scandal, ran on a platform heavy on ethics reform.
In a move to promote transparency in state government, Brown proposed creating the new records advocate. But she has repeatedly wavered on who should direct the person’s work.
In her original proposal, she called for the advocate to work out of the Secretary of State’s Office, where the state archives are held, Matasar said previously.
But by mid-December, after Republican Dennis Richardson was elected to oversee that office, Brown had changed course.
Brown’s Dec. 15 proposal had her appointing the records advocate, who would work out of the Department of Administrative Services. This department prepares the governor’s budget proposal and is largely responsible for carrying out her agenda. In addition, Brown hires and fires the agency’s director.
That plan, now embodied in Senate Bill 106, raised concerns that the advocate wouldn’t be independent enough to push Brown – or any subsequent governor — to release records that should be public.
During a Legislative hearing on the bill Monday, Matasar told the Senate Committee On General Government and Accountability that Brown is open to housing the advocate in another office and is in talks with the Secretary of State’s office about the possibility of housing the position there.
Ideally, the advocate would function in a stand-alone office, she said, but that doesn’t seem realistic.
Stephen Elzinga, the Secretary of State’s governmental and legal affairs director, said he was looking forward to working with the governor’s office on the bill.
“For a public records advocate to be successful, it is critical that they coordinate closely with the existing public records work being done by the state archives division,” he said. “It is also important that the public records advocate both be actually independent and perceived as independent by both public and governmental entities.”
Although no lawmaker has introduced any potential changes or additions to the bill, the governor’s office drafted several late last year.
A Dec. 22 email, obtained by The Oregonian through a public records request, showed six requested amendments sent to legislative counsel, including one that moved the public records advocate from the administrative services department to the Secretary of State’s office.
It is unclear whether those amendments will be filed unchanged.
Committee chair Sen. Chuck Riley, D-Hillsboro, said the bill is a priority for him this session.
“It’s going to take most of session to get it ironed out,” he said. “We’ll get something out. I don’t know what it’s going to look like.”
Riley said he doubts the final proposal will cost much money, which would grease its passage this session.
A standalone office with multiple advocates could force the bill to the money-allocating Joint Ways & Means Committee for approval, which could spell its death. A bill that asks for a salary for one person, though, will probably pass, Riley said.
Oregonian reporter Hillary Borrud contributed to this story.
— Anna Marum
amarum@oregonian.com
503-294-5911
@annamarum
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