The Open Government or \u201cSunshine law\u201d was created to err on the side of disclosure, one local lawyer who uses the Open Government Act regularly explains. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis law, almost every state has one. These laws are called Sunshine laws sometimes. All it takes is a request to the custodian of records at whatever department you want the document,\u201d lawyer George Hasselback said. <\/p>\n
In the CNMI, it is best to send a letter to the head of the agency. For example, he said, if somebody wants something from the Department of Public Safety, they should address it to the Commissioner and it can then be forwarded on to the pertinent person. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf somebody wants to do it the right way, they should probably reference the Open Government Act,\u201d he said. \u201cThey should describe the document specifically enough so they know what you\u2019re talking bout. You don\u2019t need to use any magic words. It is a law that is intended to err on the side of disclosure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hasselback said open government laws were created to help the citizens obtain public records. <\/p>\n
\u201cBack in the days before these types of laws, you\u2019d request records that were supposed to be open but you\u2019d get the runaround from the various agencies, \u2018Oh, well, you have to talk to so and so, oh you have to talk to so and so. I don\u2019t know where the records are. The records are in the other building. I\u2019ll get to it when I have to,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cWhat this does is it puts the burden on the government. They have a certain amount of time to respond to you. If they don\u2019t, they can be liable for penalties.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the CNMI, government agencies are required to provide the documents within 10 days and can charge a reasonable fee for copying. <\/p>\n
In his experience, Hasselback said some agencies in the Commonwealth get an A+ and some get an F. <\/p>\n
\u201cLike every other law in the CNMI, it\u2019s a matter of whether or not it\u2019s enforced,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are some times it\u2019s just not enforced. I understand it\u2019s Saipan, we\u2019re all supposed to be a little more relaxed, but the way the law reads you have 10 days. Ten days to act on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
If an agency representative says he or she is going to work on preparing the documents, Hasselback said that is usually sufficient for him, but when months and months go by without any word that becomes a problem. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have had some problems with certain agencies and I\u2019m looking at my options under it (the law),\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
He said the experience doesn\u2019t have to be antagonistic, adding that when some agencies receive the letter they automatically call the Office of the Attorney General or departmental lawyer, which does not have to be the case. <\/p>\n
On July 4, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act into law. It went into effect the following year. The Act applies only to federal agencies. However, all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and some of the territories have similar laws. <\/p>\n
The Commonwealth\u2019s law is pretty standard, Hasselback said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese laws are in several states. Guam has a similar one,\u201d he added. \u201cMany other states have these laws in place. The details may change a little. They may have a different time to respond, or they may have different statutory requirements, but it\u2019s all going to be about the same thing. There\u2019s not going to be any huge variation from state to state.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Open Government or \u201cSunshine law\u201d was created to err on the side of disclosure, one local lawyer who uses the Open Government Act regularly explains. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}