January 19, 2007

Legislative Database Update 4

Steven Kriegish, director of Tennessee's Office of Legislative Information Services, is asserting that the state legislature's internal bill tracking database, which contains records of how legislators vote on individual pieces of legislation which the legislature does not easily share on the public website - is not subject to the state's open records laws. Kriegish emailed a different section of state law which effectively says the database is off-limits to the public unless the "Joint Legislative Services Committee" says otherwise - and that if the committee chose to release the data it could do so in printed form rather than allowing the public to access and search the electronic documents.

In response to an emailed inquiry from me, Kriegish emailed section 3-10-108 of the Tennessee Code:

.Access to legislative computer system
(a) The joint legislative services committee shall consider each application for direct access to the legislative computer system in which confidential information is stored or processed, or that is connected to another computer in which confidential information is stored or processed, and solely shall determine whether or not to permit direct access by the applicant.
(b) Direct access to such a computer may not be permitted unless protection of any confidential information is ensured.
(c) The provisions of (Section) 10-7-503 shall not apply to records or information otherwise available in printed form or to information or records otherwise exempt from the provisions of (Section) 10-7-503.
(d) If public information is stored in a computer-readable form, the committee has exclusive authority to determine the form in which the information will be reproduced for the requestor of the information; provided, that the reproduction, publication, and sale of Tennessee Code Annotated in any form, in whole or in part, shall be pursuant to the provisions of title 1, chapter 1. If access to such public information is also available in printed form, it need not be provided in an electronic readable form.
(e) The committee shall designate the terminals, if any, at which public access is given to public information. The data processing equipment located in the offices of members of the general assembly and legislative staff need not provide such access if not so designated by the committee.

The good news: the law recognizes the possibilty of the public making application for direct access to the legislative computer system, and says the Joint Legislative Services Committee "shall consider" that application if one is made. The bad news is section D, which says, "If public information is stored in a computer-readable form, the committee has exclusive authority to determine the form in which the information will be reproduced for the requestor of the information."

The public information is storied in computer-readable form, but the "joint legislative services committee" has "exclusive authority" to determine how to provide it to the public. So far, that committee has decided to provide it to the public via a mix of paper records and a difficult-to-navigate website, even though the same commitee and the same Office of Legislative Information Services have seen fit to provide legislators with a much-more-easily accessed database.

So, who is the Joint Legislative Services Committee?

According to the Tennessee Blue Book, the Joint Legislative Services Committee was created in 1977 and is composed of ten members, with the speaker of each house serving as a co-chair. Two members of the majority party and two members of the minority party are appointed by the respective speaker to serve on the committee, which "makes recommendations on management, policies, and procedures to be employed in providing services to the General Assembly or either house thereof."

The committee appoints the directors of the offices of Legislative Administration, Legal Services, Legislative Budget Analysis and Legislative Information Services.

So, who is on that committee? I don't know. The legislature's website has a list of House-Senate joint committees but that one isn't on the list.

So, a committee whose membership is hidden from you decides that you can't easily access legislative bill tracking information and legislators' voting records, including by giving some of the information in printed form rather than letting you access the electronic database, and the legislature gave itself "exclusive authority" to do so despite the state's open-records law which was supposed to ensure the public could access public records, including electronic documents, to the "fullest possible extent."

So much for the concept of open and accountable government.

For background, read this previous post and follow the links.

Update: I've spoken to a number of technical experts who say it would be fairly simple to build a web search interface for that database. The obstacle here isn't technical but political - neither House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh nor former longtime Senate Speaker John Wilder ever cared enough about governmental transparency and accountability to lead the Joint Legislative Services Committee to open the database to the public. Wilder's out of the picture. The key now is new Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey. Were he to appoint four members to the committee who favored opening the database to the public, and were he and they to call for doing so, the spotlight would shine brightly on Naifeh and his half of the committee.