GEORGIA F.O.I. CONFIDENTIAL

Next stop for "Blue Book" is silver screen

Atlanta, Dec. 22, 2004 -- The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is producing a seven-minute video for police roll calls, and hopes to premiere it at next month's Bar, Media and Judiciary Conference.  It's the next development for teaching with the booklet, "Law Enforcement Officer's Guide to Open Records in Georgia.." GBI produced it in 2002 with law enforcement officials, media lawyers and the Georgia First Amendment Foundation.

GBI Chief Vernon Keenan then voiced what has been termed the Keenan Principle of Open Government. Here it is:  "A record is open unless it is specifically exempted from release."  A third positive step came when Keenan made available at minimal cost the state's felony database.

According to Gary Theisen, freedom of information officer, 8,200 "blue books" of 8,500 printed have been distributed around the state.  GBI fielded 3,000 open-records requests in 2004, more from citizens than media, according to Theisen. The "Blue Book" content on its web site and that of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation received 65,256 hits, he said.

Title 50's identity keeps changing as its adds tobacco money, road-building

Georgia Open Records and Open Meetings were codified in Title 50 of the Georgia Code in 1981, according to Attorney Tom Clyde. Open government advocates proudly began to think of the title as their own.

However, the Barnes administration added the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority and One Georgia Authority acts.  Now a massive new chapter of 6,300 words would be added to implement "public-private" tollway roads, if Senate Bill 5 were passed.

 Parks are public

The Piedmont Park Conservancy is subject to the Georgia Open Records Act, according to Attorney General Thurbert Baker, and so Georgia FOI just keeps expanding.  This time it has grown to take in the deliberations by a conservancy -- one that is voting to build a six-story parking deck by a large park in downtown Atlanta.

Rep. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) had Hollie Manheimer's backing as he asked Baker to letter-rule in the dispute.  Once Baker had affirmed its status as a part of open government, the conservancy voted again, this time in an open meeting. The city will move ahead with a master-planned deck and 53-acre addition.