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Minutes for SB70 - Committee on Judiciary
Short Title
Providing for reasonable fees for electronic copies of records under the open records act, exempting from disclosure formally closed investigations with no found violations, requiring county or district attorneys to file reports of violations with the attorney in December instead of January, determining the membership calculation of subordinate groups under the open meetings act, requiring public bodies or agencies that live stream meetings to ensure that the public is able to observe and providing for a five minute deviation to resume an open meeting at the conclusion of executive sessions.
Minutes Content for Mon, Feb 3, 2025
Chairwoman Warren opened the hearing on SB70
Natalie Scott, Revisor's Office, provided an overview of the bill and stood for questions. (Attachment 1)
John Goodyear, General Counsel, The League of Kansas Municipalities, testified in support of the bill. The League and our member cities support the transparencies guaranteed by the Open Records Act and Open Meeting Act. He states good government operates in the light of day. (Attachment 2)
Jay Hall, Deputy Director and General Counsel, Kansas Association of Counties, presented testimony in support of the bill. We strongly support open government. Establishing a statutory threshold for reasonable electronic records, as has been established for hard copy records, is a commonsense modernization of existing law. (Attachment 3)
Jill O'Connor, Private Citizen, provided testimony in support of SB70. She asks that it is required of public bodies - county commission, school boards, city councils to name a few - to stream the entire meeting start to finish, to include all public comments. (Attachment 4)
Charlotte O'Hara, Private Citizen, provided support of this bill. She asks the committee to require: 1. Public comments on the agenda for every local government public business meeting. 2. Require public comment period to be at the beginning of the meeting. Local government serves the people and the people should not have to wait through an entire meeting in order to address their elected representatives. (Attachment 5)
Gary Morgan, Private Citizen, supports SB70. His point is that given the current state of Kansas law it gives too much latitude to those elected officials to censor the public from hearing what others in the public are saying and questioning our elected officials. (Attachment 6)
Catherine Ellsworth, Private Citizen, supports this bill. She provided comments based upon her experience with KORA and KOMA obstruction in Douglas County. She shared a graph of the responses to previous requests. She stated, without improved KORA/KOMA statutes, the public has little chance of understanding what's going on behind the scenes, which is substantial. (Attachment 7)
Debbie Detmer, Private Citizen, is a proponent of SB70. She states it is a must for transparency to see all parts of a meeting held. She states that live stream meetings must include all parts of the meeting. The fees have been outrageous for electronic copies for KORA or KOMA information. This must stop. (Attachment 8)
Proponent, Written only testimony was provided by Bret Anderson, Private Citizen. (Attachment 9)
The proponent conferees stood for questions.
Matthew Bingesser, Administrative Counsel, Office of Attorney General provided neutral testimony on SB70, He stated their office is charged with enforcing the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) and the Kansas Open Meetings Act (KOMA), as well as providing public education about both statutes. He states their office is committed to promoting government transparency and accountability while ensuring that agencies and officials can still operate efficiently and effectively. His testimony concludes with stating SB70 represents a positive step forward in updating KORA and KOMA to meet demands of the modern technological landscape. (Attachment 10)
Angela Stallbaumer, Deputy Director/General Counsel, Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB), provided neutral testimony for this bill as they support some of the proposed amendments and have concern over others. (Attachment 11)
Neutral, written only testimony was submitted by the following:
Amanda Stanley, City Attorney, City of Topeka (Attachment 12)
- Dick Carter, on behalf of City of Overland Park (Attachment 13)
The neutral conferees stood for questions.
Dave Trabert, CEO, Kansas Policy Institute, provided testimony in opposition to the bill. His position is that taxpayers should not be charged for receiving electronic copies of document. They do support open meetings but wanted to discuss the costs. (Attachment 14)
The opposing conferee stood for questions.
No further conferees. Chairwoman Warren closed the hearing on SB70.
