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Committee advances bill on Open Records Act fees, closed-investigation exemptions and streaming notice
Summary
Senate Bill 70, which revises Open Records Act fees, narrows disclosure of closed investigations, adjusts filing dates and clarifies livestream notice and subordinate-group meeting coverage, was amended and reported favorably out of committee.
Senate Bill 70, a multipurpose bill amending the Open Records Act and meeting-notice requirements, was considered and amended by the Kansas Senate Judiciary Committee and reported out of committee as amended.
The bill, as explained by the reviser, provides for reasonable fees for electronic copies of records under the Open Records Act, exempts from disclosure formally closed investigations with no found violations, moves the county or district attorney's filing date to December (the reviser's draft was amended during committee), adjusts subordinate-group membership calculations under the law, and requires that public bodies that livestream meetings ensure the public can observe all portions of the public meeting. It also allows a five-minute deviation to resume open meetings after a closed session.
Committee members considered several amendments. Senator Shane offered and the committee adopted an amendment changing an annual filing deadline from January 15 to October 15 (the bill originally proposed December; the amendment moved it to October 15). Senator Titus offered and the committee adopted an amendment clarifying fees and preventing agencies from charging both a per-page fee and a time-based fee for retrieval of digital records; the amendment also clarified that agencies cannot charge a per-page fee for digital records (PDFs) and must instead charge time-to-collect or rely on a per-page print fee where appropriate. Senator Titus later offered a subordinate-group/open-meetings amendment to clarify that subordinate groups created by a public body are subject to the Open Meetings Act when they function with a quorum and discuss public business; the committee adopted that amendment as well.
After adopting the amendments the committee voted to move Senate Bill 70 favorably out of committee. Senator Bowser moved the final motion to report the bill favorably; Senator Shane seconded. The transcript records the motion and that "the motion carries." The transcript does not provide a roll-call or yea/nay tally.
Votes at a glance: Committee voted to report Senate Bill 70 favorably out of committee (motion carried; roll-call not recorded in transcript).
