Oregon Attorney General John Kroger is attempting to enforce the state’s public meetings and records law about government transparency.
The law grants citizens the right to access a variety of information, such as the state’s revenues and expenditures records as well as the allocation of tax funds to schools and state-supported grants.
“We’re all affected by the state government,” Nick Buccola, assistant professor of political science, said. “[Kroger] is trying to find a more accessible way to get information available to the public.”
Kroger’s efforts are a result of House Bill 2500 – a bill that was approved during the 2009 legislative session to make more information available to the public.
Kroger hosted the first of the six hearings in Salem on Feb. 24. The event was co-sponsored by the Oregon Newspaper Publishers’ Association.
“The goal of the meeting was to gather suggestions for improving the transparency laws,” Tony Green, communications and policy director of Oregon, said.
According to a Feb. 25 article in The Statesman Journal, suggestions at the Salem hearing ranged from putting public records online to cutting fees and responding faster to public request forms.
These changes will also make information easier for journalists to obtain.
“People go to the media for news,” senior Keyra Loo, a mass communication major, said. “We need to have full public records available to report stories and unveil the truth.”
Kroger will host the remaining five hearings in Portland, Bend, Eugene, Pendleton and Medford.
Additional input from Oregon residents will be derived from the hearings.
“A successful overhaul of the Oregon’s open government laws will require input from the public, the media and government officials,” Kroger said in a statement on the government’s Web site.
Along with the six statewide meetings, Kroger uploaded a new public records request form and a “Citizen’s Guide to Public Records and Public Meetings” on the Department of Justice’s Web site.
The government also hired Michael Kron as the state’s government transparency counsel, which is a new position created to effectively enforce the open government laws, according to Oregon’s Department of Justice Web site.
Kron will work with the state’s 36 district attorneys to handle appeals to government denials of public information requests.

Shawn Fisher
News Reporter Shawn Fisher can be reached at [email protected]