Effect of Court Decision on Public Records

by Woody Jenkins

CENTRAL — The decision by Louisiana’s 1st Circuit Court of Appeal to reverse the ruling of District Judge Kay Bates in the case of Community Press, LLC, v. CH2MHILL was a clear victory for the Central City News in our fight to protect the citizen’s right to have access to Public Records in the City of Central.

The people of Central are in a unique position — one of first impression never before experienced in Louisiana.  The City of Central has completely privatized all city services, and the day-to-day operations of government are run by a private company, rather than by government employees.

There are pros and cons to privatization, but one thing must not be lost through privatization — the citizen’s right to know what his government is doing, even if that “government” is being administered by a private company.

The past two years have been a very difficult time.  At the Central City News, we have been threatened, boycotted, vilified, and told we would be run out of town.  Those who oppose the right to access to Public Records have funded a competitor to attempt to put the Central City News out of business.

Why?  Simply because we have insisted that the people of Central have the right to know what their government is doing — even if it has been privatized!

A free society depends on a number of important pillars, such as freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to property, and the right to choose our officials through free and fair elections.

But there are many other safeguards necessary to insure that we live in a free society — not only in form but in fact.

One of those is the Public’s Right to Know what their government is doing.  That right has three important parts — Public Records, Open Meetings, and Public Notice.

This is about transparency in government, which is essential to citizens controlling their government, rather than having it controlled by a small, powerful clique who run government in their own interest and for their own benefit.

Access to Public Records means that any citizen can have access to the fundamental documents and records that tell what the government is doing.

Open Meetings means that any citizen can attend any meeting of a governmental body, watch the deliberations, and express his views to those making the decisions.

Public Notice

means that fair and adequate writ-

ten notice has to be provided to citizens before any public body meets and before any important decision is made.  Without fair and adequate Public Notice, the Public Records Law and the Open Meetings Law are meaningless.

In Louisiana, we have strong protections for all of these safeguards, through the Louisiana Constitution, our Public Records Law, and our Open Meetings Law.

The laws are good, but even good laws have to be enforced, and that doesn’t happen automatically.

Sometimes someone has a take a stand and make sure that the government abides by the law.  Often, that is very expensive, time-consuming, and, yes, controversial.  But it is one of the prices of liberty.

HHH

The decision by the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal is clear and straight forward:

• The appellate court vacated the summary judgment in favor of CH2MHILL, which was issued by District Judge Kay Bates.

• The court said that CH2MHILL is a private, for-profit company and therefore is not a “public body” per se under the Public Records Law.

• However, the court said the company may well be a “public body” in fact, based on the connexity between CH2MHILL and the City of Central.

• The court of appeal directed Judge Bates to hear evidence on the connexity between CH2MHILL and the City of Central and to render a decision in accordance with the views expressed in the appellate court’s decision.

So, what’s next?  We hope and expect that Judge Bates will hold a hearing to receive evidence and take testimony in this case, which she has not heretofore done.

In that hearing and in any preliminary depositions, we believe we can establish a very strong connexity between the City of Central and CH2MHILL, which will show that CH2MHILL has functioned as the government of the city and performed sovereign acts.

Once this is shown, we believe the Public Records that we have requested will have to be produced and that the cost of enforcing this right will have to be paid by CH2MHILL.

For all of the many citizens and businesses who have stood with us in this fight on behalf of the citizens of Central, we send you our most sincere thanks!