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Metropolitan Council seeks Data Practices coverage for board and senior staff; committee moves bill forward
Summary
House File 1596 would add Metropolitan Council board members and certain senior staff to the Data Practices Act’s list of public officials. The committee voted to refer the bill to the General Register after testimony from Met Council staff and an open-government advocate.
Representative Acom presented House File 1596, a Met Council initiative to add the Metropolitan Council chair, board members and selected senior staff to the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act’s definition of public officials, which would make certain employment and investigative records public under existing law.
Judd Shetnan, government affairs director at the Metropolitan Council, said the change responds to a prior resignation and subsequent questions about whether the council’s comparable staff were covered by the Data Practices Act. “We realized that, under the statutory requirements of the data practices act, the Met Council was not there,” Shetnan told the committee, and the council seeks parity with state agencies.
Rich Neumeister, an open-government advocate, supported the proposal and encouraged lawmakers to consider adding other public authorities with significant authority and budgets to the statute. He referenced past cases — including investigations and resignations years ago — that motivated prior public-official transparency laws.
The committee voice-voted to re-refer House File 1596 to the General Register.
The bill’s supporters described the change as a transparency measure intended to align the metropolitan planning and service agency with disclosure rules that apply to other public officials and state agencies.
