Open SC government to the public

The South Carolina legislature has a rare opportunity this year to make government more open to the public, but it is about to blow it.

Actually, one person is holding up the progress, and it is state Sen. Marge Bright Matthews of Walterboro, who was recently elected to fill the unexpired term of the late Sen. Clementa Pinckney.

From our perspective, Bright Matthews has never liked public scrutiny. She has refused to communicate with our reporters or editors since major questions arose during her campaign: Did she live in the district she sought to represent, and why did she not pay local taxes on time?

That penchant for keeping the public in the dark on public affairs now has gotten worse.

Important reforms to the S.C. Freedom of Information Act have been approved by the House and the Senate Judiciary Committee. This has come after six years of attempts, with input from all concerned.

But as the legislative session ticks to a close, Bright Matthews is using arcane Senate rules to stop the bill from coming before the Senate. An effort led by state Rep. Weston Newton of Bluffton was underway earlier this week to bring the FOI reform to a vote under a different bill.

Bright Matthews has no good arguments for her obstruction.

Yet she is denying the public several new ways to be more effective watchdogs of their government.

When the public suspects a violation of the FOI, a challenge would be available for the first time that would not force them to hire a lawyer, file a suit and go to district court. The bill would create an Office of Freedom of Information Act Review with the Administrative Law Court to hear disputes. That makes government more accessible to the people.

At the same time, it is an avenue governments can take to seek relief from “unduly burdensome, overly broad and otherwise improper requests to public bodies.”

Also, the bill tackles two common tactics governments use to keep secrets from the public: long delays and big bills.

It would reduce the time the government has to respond to Freedom of Information requests for documents, from 15 days to 10.

And it attempts to put a stop to government agencies charging thousands of dollars to produce public documents for a member of the public. Fees would have to be posted and consistent. And they could not exceed the prorated hourly salary of the lowest-paid agency employee. The bill also says copying fees must be at the commercial rate and cannot be charged if documents are transmitted by electronic means.

Also, documents considered by a public body in public session must be available to the public.

These are important refinements to address known problems with the Freedom of Information Act.

Bright Matthews’ objections that it helps the media and not the man on the street is poppycock. The changes help the public, and her obstruction hurts the public.

Rep. Bill Taylor, R-Aiken, who has worked long and hard to get these improvements into the law, says the changes simply “plug holes that have been created by those who don’t want to be bothered by citizen inquiries and sunshine on government.”

The time is right to get this done, and the legislature must find a way around the foolishness of a single secretive state senator.

This story was originally published May 26, 2016 at 9:48 AM with the headline "Open SC government to the public."