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THE PRESIDENT: I am sorry. Thank
you very much.
Delegate Willoner has an amendment
which is in the process of being printed.
It has not yet been printed. If you will get
before you your Amendment No. 6, it is a
variation of Amendment No. G, the Chair
can state it to you.
The amendment would accept the sug-
gestion made during the earlier debate by
Delegate Weidemeyer, in line 9 to strike
the words "except as otherwise" and in
lieu thereof to insert the words "to the
extent and in the manner". It completely
reverses the necessity of having action by
the General Assembly. Is there any objec-
tion to considering the amendment al-
though not printed? It is in the process of
being printed now.
The Chair hears none.
This is to the unnumbered section on
page 4. You will refer to your Amendment
No. G. This is adding a new section. It
does not relate to any section now in the
Committee Recommendation dealing with
freedom of information.
As the section proposed to be included
would be amended, it would read as fol-
lows: "Governmental proceedings, meet-
ings, and records as denned by law shall
be open to the people and prior notice of
such proceedings or meetings shall be pro-
vided to the extent and in the manner pre-
scribed by law."
Is there any objection to considering the
amendment although it is not yet printed?
The Chair hears none.
This will be Amendment No. 12.
The Clerk will read the amendment.
READING CLERK: Amendment No. 12
to Committee Recommendations R&P-1 and
R&P-2 as amended by Report No. S&D-9,
by Delegates Willoner, Dukes, Macdonald,
Maurer, B. Miller, Pascal, F. C. Robey,
Schloeder, Schneider, Sherbow, Sickles,
Singer, Sollins, Sosnowski, and Stern:
On page 4 immediately preceding line 45
of section 1.18, Reserved Rights, add the
following new section :
"Section 1. — . Freedom of Information
Governmental proceedings, meetings, and
records shall be open to the people to the
extent and in the manner prescribed by
law."
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THE PRESIDENT: The amendment is
presented by Delegate Willoner and sec-
onded by the co-sponsors.
The Chair recognizes Delegate Willoner.
DELEGATE WILLONER: This is es-
sentially the same language as we had pro-
vided by Amendment No. 4, but it makes
an essential change. It no longer requires
the presumption that meetings will be open.
It states the principle and provides that the
legislature shall provide for the principle.
The vote was so close before. It was by
one vote. There are several people who
wish to vote on it. I think that it is pos-
sible that if I could have held the votes,
there would have been a majority for the
other language.
However, I think we should try to get
consensus here and this has the support of
those people who have objected to this
change of presumption and it does state
the principle, a very important principle,
but it allows it to be developed by the
legislature.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Willoner,
for clarification, may the Chair ask a
question?
Is the concluding clause "to the extent
and in the manner prescribed by law" in-
tended as a modification of all that pre-
cedes it or only as the modification of the
immediately preceding clause that prior
notice of such proceedings or meetings
shall be provided?
DELEGATE WILLONER: It is in-
tended to modify the entire section.
THE PRESIDENT: Grammatically, it
would seem not to be the case. I take it you
would be content to have the Committee on
Style change it?
DELEGATE WILLONER: I would. I
did not want to tamper with the language
because it was adjusted on the floor before.
I will leave it to the Style Committee. The
intent was that the extent and manner by
law should apply to governmental meet-
ings, proceedings, records, as well as the
notices of those proceedings.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate James.
DELEGATE JAMES: Mr. Chairman,
this proposal worries me. It seems to me
that the legality of most governmental ac-
tions might well be in the balance. We are
voting on something without having it be-
fore us. For instance, in this proviso con-
cerning notices, are the county commis-
sioners going to have to run a notice for
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