BLAIR LEE III, Acting Governor

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comprehensive revision of the Public Information Act- In
accomplishing this major revision. House Bill 1326 provides
private persons greater access to investigative,
intelligence, and security records and revises the
procedures relating to security of public records. That
bill states as a matter of public policy that all persons
are entitled to information regarding the affairs of
government, subject to the protections contained in Article
76A. I subscribe to that policy declaration, but I do not
believe that this same Law should impose additional burdens
on government agencies to publish notice of the records'
availability. The availability and security of these public
documents are already assured under the terms of Article
76A.

In addition, I believe that one of the provisions of
the bill may produce an unintended result. It provides, in
lines 148 through 150, that the custodian must publish
notice of his procedures whereby any person can be notified
on request if the custodian's system of records contains, a
record pertaining to the person- As the bill was originally
drafted, those procedures were to be applicable to a request
by a "person in interest". That term is defined in Article
76A to mean the person who is the subject of the record, or
his designated representative. The amended version is
applicable to a "person", a defined term meaning any natural
person, corporation, partnership, firm, association, or
governmental agency. I believe that this provision of the
bill may prove counterproductive to its stated intention to
ensure the privacy of public records and may place a
tremendous burden upon the custodians of certain types of
records.

For these reasons, I have decided to veto House Bill
609.

Sincerely,
Blair Lee III
Acting Governor

House Bill No. 611 - Regulatory Programs Evaluation

AN ACT concerning

Regulatory Programs Evaluation

FOR the purpose of maintaining a healthy State economy and a
government that has the confidence of its citizens by
establishing a system of periodic legislative review of