Thompson wants to give elected officials another way of hiding what they do from their bosses that would be the public while Kruse is the only member of the Indiana House to vote against constructing yet another barrier between politicians and the glare of public scrutiny. At issue is a bill sponsored by Thompson that would make Indiana one of the first states in the nation to enact sweeping restrictions on access to public officials' e-mail. Thompson slipped his e-mail ban into a bill on a collective bargaining. There was no time for public comment on Thompson's proposal. The potential for abuse of public access records implicit in Thompson's bill is staggering.
Legislators serve at the pleasure of Indiana residents.
We vote them into office. We foot the bill for their salaries, their staff, their computers and their offices. Now, some members of the Indiana General Assembly don't want to live by a law that applies to everyone else. Legislators are considering making themselves exempt from the state's public records act. They want to be able to set their own rules about what information is released to the public.