04/16/2002 01:38 PM Senate TRA

                                                                                                                                
         SB 238-PUBLIC RECORDS: STATE SECURITY & SAFETY                                                                     
                                                                                                                              
CHAIRMAN JOHN  COWDERY called the Senate Transportation  Committee                                                            
meeting to  order at 1:38 p.m. and  announced SB 238 to  be up for                                                              
consideration.  Senators  Ward,  Elton, Wilken  and  Cowdery  were                                                              
present.                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                
MS. CAROL CARROLL, Department of  Military and Veterans, said that                                                              
Deborah Behr from the Department of Law would testify with her.                                                                 
                                                                                                                                
MS. CARROLL said  that SB 238 addresses state  security and safety                                                              
plans  and procedures.  She explained  that Section  2 deals  with                                                              
exceptions   to  Alaska's  public   records  statute.   Currently,                                                              
Alaska's  public  records  statute  is  quite  broad;  most  state                                                              
information  is available  to  the public.  Section  2 will  allow                                                              
state   agencies  to   withhold  certain   documents  in   certain                                                              
circumstances.   Section   3  pertains   to   the   Administrative                                                              
Procedures Act and  allows plans to be adopted  by Executive Order                                                              
instead of by regulation, which requires public comment.                                                                        
                                                                                                                                
CHAIRMAN  COWDERY asked  her to explain  the changes  made  in the                                                              
Senate State Affairs committee substitute.                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                
MS. CARROLL  responded that the original  bill had a  section that                                                              
allowed  the Department  of Transportation  and Public  Facilities                                                              
(DOTPF)  to have  citation authority  in  international and  rural                                                              
airports.  [Ms.  Carroll's  next   statement  was  indiscernible.]                                                              
Currently, the FAA can fine the states  for security violations at                                                              
international  airports. There  is no  easy way  for the state  to                                                              
pass  that  on  to  the  actual  violator  so  the  State  Affairs                                                              
Committee took  that out of the  bill. In addition, Section  3 was                                                              
tightened up.  Section 3 used to  apply to boards  and commissions                                                              
but  the Senate  State  Affairs  Committee  thought that  was  too                                                              
broad.                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                
CHAIRMAN  COWDERY asked  her to  explain the  type of  information                                                              
they are talking about.                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                                
MS. DEBORAH  BEHR, Regulations Attorney,  Department of  Law, told                                                              
members that  she is before  the committee because  she frequently                                                              
advises state agencies on the public  records act. She stated that                                                              
Section 1 of the  bill is designed to deal with  a very narrow set                                                              
of  state  records  that  deal  with   security  plans,  programs,                                                              
procedures and detailed descriptions  of state infrastructure. She                                                              
explained:                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                
     It  allows  those  records,   which  arguably  could  be                                                                   
     disclosed  to the  public, to  be  exempted from  public                                                                   
     disclosure. Just  because something is a  security plan,                                                                   
     it doesn't  automatically mean  that a state  agency can                                                                   
     preclude its  release into the  public. We have  to show                                                                   
     that   the   disclosure   would   interfere   with   its                                                                   
     implementation  or that it  would disclose  confidential                                                                   
     guidelines  or would  cause  a substantial  risk to  the                                                                   
     public  to do  so. The  privilege  in the  bill is  very                                                                   
     similar to  what law enforcement  privileges are  to law                                                                   
     enforcement   officers.    The   federal    Freedom   of                                                                   
     Information Act (FOIA) has a  national defense exception                                                                   
     to it. We  do not have a similar exemption  in the state                                                                   
     statute.  People who  believe  that a  state agency  has                                                                   
     unjustifiably   withheld  a  record   can  ask   for  an                                                                   
     administrative appeal  on the issue and  then ultimately                                                                   
     go to court if they need to.                                                                                               
                                                                                                                                
CHAIRMAN  COWDERY asked  her to  give an  example of  the kind  of                                                              
information that would be undesirable to be made public.                                                                        
                                                                                                                                
MS. BEHR replied that an example  might be a security system for a                                                              
state building  in which  people wearing red  badges on  a certain                                                              
day of the week were considered law  enforcement officers and were                                                              
not subject to the same level of  search as the general public. In                                                              
that case,  the badge color of the  day would not be  disclosed to                                                              
the general public.                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                
There being  no further  discussion, SENATOR  ELTON moved  to pass                                                              
CSSB 238(STA) with  the attached zero fiscal note  from committee.                                                              
There were no objections and it was so ordered.