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Long way from real transparency

By Staff | Sep 6, 2016
As long as New Hampshire continues to rely on the court system as the sole avenue of appeal for public records requests that are denied, the state can never have real government transparency.
The guardians of public records know that if they reject a request for documents, no matter how reasonable, the burden immediately shifts to the party making the request to take the matter to court.
It’s a system that discriminates against Granite Staters who lack the deep pockets required to hire an attorney and challenge a city, town or school district in court.
When it comes to public records, we think the state’s common folk are entitled to every bit as much transparency as the gentry, which is why we think New Hampshire should take a hard look at a law that will go into effect in Ohio later this year.
The Ohio Court of Claims will start accepting complaints on Sept. 28 through a website, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
For a a $25 filing fee, Ohio residents will eventually be able to go online and fill out a complaint form. They will then submit copies of the records requests and the denials they received from the government. A system allowing the filing and payment is expected to start operating by Nov. 1.
Under the Ohio law, complaints will be sent to a mediator who will work with residents and government officials to reach a resolution. If no agreement is reached, a special master will rule on whether it was legally correct for the government to deny the request or if a law was broken and the documents in dispute must be handed over.
"If the process works as intended, Ohio may have a national model to quickly and affordably resolve many cases that would otherwise clog court calendars or never get litigated at all," said Dennis Hetzel, executive director of the Ohio Newspaper Association.
We see no reason this kind of system couldn’t work for New Hampshire.
The Ohio Legislature appropriated $500,000 to pay for the program. Given that the Buckeye State is a lot bigger than New Hampshire, we can’t help but think that we could do it for a lot less money than that.
Money, though, isn’t the big issue. The bigger problem is that that taxpayer-funded organizations that represent cities, towns and school districts have a stranglehold on the state’s lawmakers when it comes to Right to Know legislation. Groups like the New Hampshire Municipal Association and the New Hampshire School Boards Association take our tax money, then work against the interests of transparency by fighting proposals to make government more open and accountable.
We’ve suggested in the past that ordinary taxpayers would be doing themselves a favor by pressuring local leaders who control town and school district pursestrings to divest their membership in these organizations.
Until that happens, we suspect, New Hampshire will remain a long way off from genuine transparency.