Effort to withhold state legislative records stalls

A last-minute push to protect state lawmakers from having to disclose public records, including their emails and other documents, has stalled, but is likely to resurface next year.

Senate and House lawmakers had scheduled a conference committee for Tuesday morning to consider a measure that would have specifically exempted their exchanges from public disclosure. But the meeting was canceled at the last minute Tuesday morning.

House Speaker Brian Bosma, whose lawyers are fighting off a challenge from a Washington-based environmental group, said the protection is needed, but will probably have to wait.

"Ultimately I thought it was inadvisable for us to put legislation together at the last second, despite the appropriateness of it and the need for it," he said Tuesday.

Lawmakers are a little more than 24 hours from wrapping up work on their 2015 legislative session. The issue of access to public records arose earlier in the session when the Energy and Policy Institute sought emails between House Energy Chairman Eric Koch, R-Bedford, and Duke Energy regarding solar energy legislation.

Bosma's staff flatly refused the request, citing a 1993 court case that allegedly exempted all state lawmakers from the state's public records laws. But Indiana's public access counselor, who is appointed by the governor to interpret state open records laws, determined at the time that lawmakers, along with other public agencies, are still subject to the law.

"It is the opinion of the public access counselor the Indiana General Assembly is subject to the Access to Public Records Act," Public Access Counselor Luke Britt wrote in the conclusion of his March 6 opinion.

But because the opinion's are only advisory, and not enforceable, Bosma's staff replied that they would still not release the emails. Specifically, Bosma's chief counsel, Jill Carnell, argued that a pair of Indiana Supreme Court cases left the decision solely up to the General Assembly, as to whether disclose.

"For all of these reasons, the Indiana Access to Public Records (in the Indiana Code 5-14-3) does not apply to the Indiana General Assembly," Carnell wrote in a March 16 reply.

A month later, the Energy Policy Institute and a pair of local liberal watchdog groups -- Common Cause of Indiana and The Citizen Action Coalition -- filed suit against the Indiana House in Marion County Superior Court.

Star reporter Tony Cook contributed to this report.

Call Star reporter Tom LoBianco at (317) 444-7136. Follow him on Twitter: @tomlobianco.