Has Sarah Palin Ruined Alaska's Sunshine Laws?

[Joanne98]

When Sarah Palin campaigned in 2008, she declared that she would bring "transparency" to Washington, DC. Yet her actions as governor of Alaska may ultimately eviscerate that state's open records laws.

Last month, a Superior Court judge in Alaska named Patrick McKay issued a decision sought by Palin. His ruling has the potential to undermine—perhaps even destroy—transparency within the Alaska state government.

McKay had presided over the appeal in a case initially brought against Palin in 2008 by Andrée McLeod, a self-styled good-government advocate in Alaska. While Palin was campaigning as John McCain's running mate, McLeod, a former Alaska Republican Party official, filed public records requests for emails regarding state business that were sent to or from Palin's official and private email accounts, as well as to and from Todd Palin's private email account. McLeod contended that Palin and her office had an obligation under two Alaska state laws—the Public Records Act and the Records Management Act—to preserve emails related to official business, whether they went through state or private accounts. (Governor Palin used her private account to conduct plenty of state business.) McLeod asked that the court declare that these emails were indeed public records—which would render them available to public inspection under the state's open records law—and that the court instruct state officials to stop using private email accounts to conduct state business.

Palin fought McLeod's effort. And the trial court judge who heard the case, Jack Smith, shot down McLeod in August 2009. Smith maintained that state law defined public records as material "developed or received by a public agency...and that are preserved for their informational value." He essentially ruled that because emails to and from private accounts had not been preserved as public records they did not have to be treated as public records. And that meant—in sort of a catch-22—they didn't have to be preserved (or made public, under the open records law). Smith also noted that since these emails were not public records, state officials could not be ordered not to generate them.

This decision created a giant loophole. If Alaska state officials want to keep any of their official conduct secret, they can simply use private email accounts for these matters. Under the decision, no state record would actually be a state record unless a state official decided to preserve it. Consequently, state officials could simply keep records off-limits by not preserving them. McLeod appealed.

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http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/02/sarah-palin-open-records-transparency