Michigan government offices should work for the people, not for themselves. That’s why the Mackinac Center recommends a constitutional amendment that would fix the state’s broken open records law.
Our proposal amendment includes annotations that explain why changes are needed and what their intended effects would be. This ideal Freedom of Information Act closes loopholes, revises exemptions that government employees use to justify redactions, and significantly increases fines for noncompliance. The recommended changes also shift the expense associated with applying permissive redactions onto the government, instead of requestors. Taken together, the amendment changes the incentives public bodies face, making the open records process quick, cheap and transparent.
Michigan needs these changes because it consistently ranks as one of the worst states in the nation for government transparency. Citizens attempting to obtain public records frequently find themselves stonewalled by long delays. When government offices finally respond, they usually ask for a payment to cover the costs of locating and reviewing records. But the estimated expense can be so high that a requestor has no choice but to abandon the request. Michigan residents who have the patience and means to obtain the information they seek often face another hurdle: The documents providing the information have so many redactions as to be, at best, confusing. Worse, they can be worthless.
The rules intended to make Michigan’s open records law work for citizens don’t help much. Requestors who wish to challenge fees, delays and redactions have two options: appeal to the head of the public body that maintains the records they seek or go to court. The first option rarely solves the problem, since it asks the public body that holds the records to review its own work. The second option is usually too expensive and time-consuming for the average citizen.
Lawmakers, advocates and others have tried to amend the law over the years. Some changes have moved the state in the right direction. None, however, go far enough to craft an effective Freedom of Information Act that holds government accountable. To make the open records law the tool it should be, lawmakers must rewrite it from top to bottom.
To see the changes we have suggested, please visit www.mackinac.org/studies. If legislators adopt our recommendations, the people of Michigan will be better able to use the state’s FOIA law to hold government accountable.
