State Senator Danny Carroll, R-Paducah, said he plans on reintroducing a revised version of a controversial bill this week, that critics say would gut the Kentucky open records law.
Carroll pulled a version of the controversial bill in January. The bill’s previous version required records requesters to pay court fees if a judge finds the request to be “frivolous.” It also held records custodians liable to fines if public employees’ private information is released in records.
Carroll said he had a productive conversation with the Kentucky Press Association about revisions to the new bill.
Attorney for the Kentucky Press Association Michael Abate said while they talked with Senator Carroll about revisions, there are still major disagreements.
"The the extent that [the bill] continues to press some of these procedural and systemic portions of the [open records] law, we think it's unwise, and it's going ot have a ton of unintended consequences," Abate said.
Carroll said most of the changes to the bill are to “simplify” its language. He said he’s removing a section of the bill that exempts discipline records from requests.
Carroll said the unnamed Secret Service agent who brought the original bill to him will most likely testify when the revised bill reaches a senate committee.
