Residents learn about state public records, open meetings laws By:Lynette Hingle, Southeastern U. Reporter June 27, 2003 Louisiana's public records and open meetings laws are strong, and penalties exist for those who do not follow them.       About 75 people including elected officials, other government employees, committee members and ordinary citizens heard 21st Judicial District Attorney Scott Perrilloux and two of his assistants explain the intricacies of the laws as well as the penalties for violating them. The Public Records and Open Meetings Information Seminar was held Thursday night at Southeastern Louisiana University's Student Union Theater.       Clifton Speed discussed public records, and Blayne Honeycutt discussed open meetings.       "You can basically think of public records as your government's records," Speed said. "They belong to the people, and the people have access to them."       While there are some exceptions, most documents generated by government are public records. Even drafts of documents, statistics, maps, letters, memos, budget requests, budgets, tapes, electronic data, payrolls, certain retirement information, tax assessment rolls and initial police reports are public records.       Speed said the law mandates that records custodians be courteous and respectful of a citizen's right to view public documents, and the public should likewise be reasonable with their requests.       Patience should be exercised on the part of the citizen, Speed said, in cases of certain unusual circumstances where the document may currently be in use by a government body for a purpose such as auditing or when the document is extremely large.       "The greater the volume, the more time it may take," Speed said.       If a custodian determines the record sought is not public, he must provide written reasons, including the legal basis, within three working days.       Records custodians who do not allow the public access to their records will face civil and criminal penalties, Speed said.       If a citizen is unlawfully denied a public record, the court will award reasonable attorney's fees and costs. The court may also award civil penalties of up to $100 for each day the custodian arbitrarily failed to give a written explanation of the reasons for denying the request. Actual damages may be awarded if proven. Criminal penalties include fines ranging from $100 to $1,000 or imprisonment for one to six months for a first conviction, and there are stiffer penalties for a subsequent conviction.       The attorneys observed that, as government increasingly uses computers for storage of records, agencies are exploring ways to separate the public content from the private content so that citizens can more easily access the public records.       Just as records custodians are banned from hiding the public's records, meetings of governing bodies cannot legally hide from the public either, Honeycutt said.       Louisiana law states that the public is allowed to attend and record the deliberations of the following public bodies: city and parish governing bodies, school, levee and public utilities boards; planning, zoning, airport and policy making commissions; state and local special district boards; advisory and administrative functions; and committees or subcommittees of those bodies.       "Each public body has its own rules and regulations for governing their meetings," Honeycutt said, but, regardless of the procedure, at least 24 hours' written public notice of the meeting must be posted, minutes must be taken during the meeting and then published, and other rules apply under the state law.       The law allows public bodies to decide, via a two-thirds vote, to close a meeting to the public to discuss personnel issues relating to an individual's character, discuss professional competence or health; discuss strategy or negotiations regarding collective bargaining or actual pending litigation; discuss security personnel, plans or devices; discuss investigation of misconduct; or deal with natural disasters or major emergencies.       The reason for the "executive session" must be stated to the public before closing the meeting, and Honeycutt said, the law states that no action can be taken in private - no polling of members, no votes.       "But what about the meeting before the meeting?" Rick Webb, an Amite resident, wanted to know.       Perrilloux said his office doesn't get many complaints about violations of the open meetings law, but when it does it's usually about the "meeting before the meeting."       It's just not allowed, he said.       "If you are a board member, you need to careful about that," Perrilloux said, "because you could be in violation of the open meetings law... It could technically be a social meeting, but if you are doing that you are raising a red flag."       Citizens who feel that a public body has violated the law may file their complaints with the district attorney or the state attorney general, and the suit must be filed within 60 days of the action to nullify an action taken by a public body.       If the court determines the public body violated the law, attorney fees can be awarded and a member of the public body who participated in an illegal meeting may be fined up to $100 per violation, which may be awarded to the plaintiff.       Members of the audience asked several questions related to personnel issues, charges for public records and other specifics of the law.       Pam Mitchell-Wagner, executive director of the Louisiana Press Association, distributed copies of the Citizens' Rights Card on Open Meetings and Public Records. Copies of the card are available from the press association. Call (225) 344-9309.        ©The Daily Star 2003