First, there is too much doubt to begin with. That is remedied easily enough with training. The attorney general's office, which has been something of a champion for open records and meetings in the past, needs to produce training material and perhaps seminars for government workers on open records and meetings. The state also should consider setting up a hotline for those government workers still in doubt to call to get instant answers on access. If that hotline gets too much use, then its necessity will have been proved, and at that point a new position of records counselor would be justified.
Some people dismiss the constant battle over access to public records as just a media issue.
But it's not just about journalists. Indeed, at the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission, only 15 percent of complaints about problems with access to public records come from the media. Despite that, in about half of the 420 records requests they made in September, the Kansas newspaper reporters were peppered with unnecessary and inappropriate questions about who they worked for and why they wanted the information. Imagine trying to get your bank account information and being asked by the branch manager why you want it. Well, it's none of their business why you want it.