Alabama lawmakers advance bill to strengthen state’s weak open records law

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Senate on Thursday advanced legislation aimed at strengthening the state’s weak open records law by setting deadlines to respond to requests to view public documents.“Right now, under current law, it’s the wild west. We don’t have timelines for governments or universities to respond in due time,” Republican Sen. Arthur Orr, the bill's sponsor, said.

The legislation would require a public records officer to acknowledge the receipt of a simple request within 10 days and then “provide a substantive response" to the request within 15 additional business days. Public entities would be given more time to respond to requests that would require more than eight hours of work to fulfill.

A 2007 comparison of state open records laws conducted by the Better Government Association and the National Freedom of Information Coalition ranked Alabama at the bottom of the nation. While the review gave 38 states, including Alabama, an “F” grade, Alabama tied for last place in the comparative rankings.

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