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BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has appointed a public records ombudswoman to review how state agencies handle records requests and consider ways to improve Idaho's public records laws.
Cally Younger, the associate attorney for the governor's office, is filling the post, Otter announced Wednesday.
The governor said the move comes in response to a request from the Newspaper Association of Idaho, in hopes of creating an option that can resolve public records disputes without the expense of taking it to the court system. Currently, Idaho public records laws state that if a person feels that a request was wrongly denied, their only option is to sue.
Otter says Younger will start by surveying state agencies on the number of records requests received and the reasons any are denied. That report should be publicly available by the end of the year, according to the executive order.
Younger "is going to put together all this information so that we can then build a process that is fair and equitable across my agencies," Otter said.
"And if we can resolve an issue before it crosses the courthouse steps, we would like to do that," he said.
Matt Davison, the publisher of the Idaho Press-Tribune and a member of the Newspaper Association of Idaho, said newspapers typically have more trouble obtaining public records from county and city government entities, and the association hopes local government leaders will follow the governor's example.
The Idaho attorney general's office and deputy attorney generals stationed at state agencies are generally responsible for reviewing and responding to records requests made to the state. Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden and his staff regularly hold training sessions for the press and public on open meetings and open records laws, and the office has published a public records manual on its website.
Otter said the ombudswoman will only deal with requests made to his state agencies, not other constitutional state offices such as the attorney general.
Otter's spokesman, Jon Hanian, said that because the attorney general's office does the first review of most of the state's responses to records requests, it makes sense to have the ombudswoman come from a separate office.
The ombudswoman won't have any statutory authority to overrule state agency responses to public records requests, however, unless the Idaho legislature decides in a future session to modify state law to give the post that power.
"I'm going to have to go the Legislature and say we've got stuff in the statute that we can take out, or we've got additional stuff that we should put into the statute," Otter said.
Younger's information gathering efforts will aid that process, he said.
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