Two significant amendments to an expansion of the Sunshine Law have recently come under debate. The first, sponsored by Rep. Jake Zimmerman (D-Olivette), required that the open records law would apply to all public officials. This failed to pass, by a small margin. The second seeks to close internal investigation records for police officers. Arguments about the latter revolve around the the tradeoffs between protecting bad officers on one hand, versus the potential for tarnishing the names of those wrongly accused.
The bill itself is a positive step in transparency, implementing harsher fines for those who fail to comply with sunshine laws and increasing the required delay between announcements of important public meetings and the actual commencement of those meetings.
