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Chamber: Bill amending OGA is ‘unnecessary’
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Posted on Aug 18 2011
The Saipan Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday that a bill amending the Open Government Act is “unnecessary” and “may have unintended consequences” as proposed and drafted.
“SCC further believes the Open Government Act addresses legitimate concerns as now written, and provides for avenues of address through the court system as inherent and within the Act itself,” said Chamber president Douglas Brennan in a letter to Rep. Rafael Demapan (Cov-Saipan).
Demapan is chairman of the Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee reviewing the bill. He is also the bill’s author.
Among other things, the bill seeks to reduce the posting requirement of meeting notices from 72 hours to 24 hours.
Brennan said the Chamber believes this amendment is counterproductive to reasonable notice requirements as currently stated in the Open Government Act, and would actually provide less public disclosure.
Demapan’s bill seeks to further define “public record,” but the Chamber finds the existing definition “sufficient.”
HB 17-67 also attempts to impose additional copying charges for the purposes of supplying response to requests for public information under the OGA, but provides opportunity to actually withhold information requested under the Act.
“Holding those seeking public information under the Act to charges for costs incident to redaction prior to photocopying are prohibitive to the purpose of the Act, and are against the intent of the Act itself,” the Chamber said.
The Chamber, the largest business organization in the CNMI with some 150 members, said the bill provides another layer of burden upon the public by holding hostage the material requested, then turns around and offers the courts as a means to overcome the very burden it places before the public.
“The Open Government Act already has the court system as recourse to unreasonable demands, and SCC believes the burden should be upon government, not the public, when serving purposes for which the Open Government Act was created,” Brennan added.
