Gov. Beshear should veto secrecy bill that creates chaos, not safety

One of the last slimy secret bills to slide its way through the Kentucky General Assembly in the waning hours of the session is a veritable symphony of unforeseen consequences, amplified by secrecy and last minute politicking.

Senate Bill 48 is a mashup of proposals (and we do mean mashup) from two former police officers, Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Paducah and Rep. John Blanton, R-Salyersville.

It’s unbelievable to think that it’s an improvement over one of its original iterations, a not so bright idea by Blanton to protect police, judges and prosecutors by making it a crime to report on their names in news stories.

Only mildly chastised by the public drubbing he received over that one, Blanton kept coming back until the last two days of the legislature and got some form of his ideas into Carroll’s original bill. That would allow personal information of police and other public officers to be redacted under the open records act in reaction to the tragic shooting at the home of New Jersey judge Esther Salas.

But Blanton’s addition junked everything up, expanding the protection to require proactive redaction, requiring agencies upon request to remove information in legal records, including property tax records, vehicle registration and employment locations or assignments. This is not just for the public officers themselves, but their relatives or anyone who might live in their house.

“Legal jabberwocky,” is how open records advocate Amye Bensenhaver describes it, along with “total chaos.”

“This is what happens when you do things secretly at the 11th hour,” said Michael Abate, an attorney for the Kentucky Press Association, who had fought Blanton’s efforts throughout the session.

The practical effects? A police officer behind on childcare payments could get those records scrubbed with a letter to the county attorney’s office. Scrubbed information at the county clerk’s office on property ownership and tax information means banks and mortgage brokers might not get information they need.

It may have been meant as a curb on the media, but it will really hurt public agencies and private businesses that will have to deal with the unforeseen consequences. That chaos will occur before the media has even gotten involved. And it’s unnecessary given that public agencies redact personal information about public officials in open records requests already.

We assume that Gov. Andy Beshear will heed the many calls to veto this bill; he might be doing so as we go to press. But make no mistake, it will be back next year as a sop to the police voting bloc and an exercise in just how far the Republican supermajority can go in making government as opaque as possible. It’s clear GOP legislators liked flexing their muscles this session, no matter how stupid the bill, no matter how bad the process.