Senator Brian Feldman's Maryland Senate Bill 554: "I urge you to throw this bill in the trash where it belongs."

There is another bill in the Maryland legislature on behalf of our Democratic Attorney General to prohibit people from being able to request public records of the government for which government gets to determine are abusive.

Here is my letter to the Chair and Vice Chair of the judiciary committee.

Dear Senators,

I am writing to express significant opposition to SB0554 - Public Information Act – Frivolous, Vexatious, or Abusive Requests – Remedies.

It is very troubling that PIA (Public Information Act) legislation is being prioritized to limit the public's access to public records. The Attorney General's own Public Information Act manual states:

"In most cases, a person need not justify or otherwise explain a request to inspect records, and a custodian of records may not require a person to say who they

are or why they want the records as a prerequisite to responding to a request. GP § 4-204. Nor may a custodian ignore a request on the grounds that it was made for the purpose of harassment. GP § 4-203(c)(2)."

I am a parent advocate for special education and I have submitted many PIA requests to gain public records related to the provision of services to students with disabilities. The Kirwan Commission recognized special education services to be so lacking as to create a separate work group for special education. The public has a right to know how our children with disabilities are being educated or not. Should school systems be allowed to simply ignore my requests and ban me from future requests, which I believe is unconstitutional.

When a friend told me that Carroll County Public Schools was paying 2 expensive private attorneys to fight one parent in a special education due process hearing, I submitted a PIA request last February for the attorney invoices to see how much CCPS was paying to fight this parent. The request was denied. So, I wrote back and explained to CCPS that attorney invoices do not reveal personally identifiable information and CCPS then provided almost fully redacted invoices (redacting the 2 attorneys initials also). After additional emails, I ended up in mediation with the Attorney General's Public Access Ombudsman. All I am allowed to say is that the mediation was not resolved. I then filed a complaint with the Public Information Act Compliance Board. It took additional time of back and forth with the Board and CCPS and the final ruling was that CCPS had to provide me with the invoices with only the student information redacted. Eight months later, there were no consequences for the school system's noncompliance with the law. THAT is what the legislature should be correcting. The PIA "shall be construed in favor of allowing inspection of a public record" GP §4–103

In another case, former Delegate Robert Flanagan requested emails between the Howard County administration and a private lobbyist. The records were denied using attorney-client privilege and deliberative process exemptions. The person denying the records was the County Executive's sister-in-law, campaign manager, and his special assistant in state government. Mr. Flanagan filed a circuit court complaint with violations of the PIA and the County admitted willful violation of the law. Imagine if this bill was in effect and the County Administration could simply ignore the requests and ban the requester from any other requests. This is unbelievably outrageous and reminds me of Trump and not Maryland Democrats, who are supposed to be about transparency in government.

from the bill: "... THE CUSTODIAN NEED NOT RESPOND TO FUTURE REQUESTS FROM THE APPLICANT OR ANOTHER PERSON MAKING A REQUEST ON BEHALF OF THE APPLICANT FOR A SPECIFIED PERIOD OF TIME."

I urge you to throw this bill in the trash where it belongs.

Respectfully.

Barb Krupiarz