Open Records and Governor Pence's Continued Communication Failure

At the end of last week, Governor Mike Pence did something that was great for transparent, open government, something that was also popular.    He vetoed Senate Bill 369, a bill that would have allowed agencies to charge up to $20 an hour to retrieve public records.  The charge would have effectively shut down much of the investigatory work being private citizens.  Any more it is bloggers who first break stories, not the traditional news media.

Governor Mike Pence

Government officials didn't like being embarrassed by these nosy private citizens.  The news media meanwhile didn't like being scooped.  So they joined together in an unholy alliance to allow agencies to impose a hefty charge for document retrieval knowing it would block "regular people" from getting access to the documents..  The Hoosier State Press Association, which represents newspapers across the state, claimed it was a good deal to get open records requests in electronic form whenever possible. 

Nonsense.   Getting documents in electronic form has never been a problem.  In fact, agencies strongly prefer to do it that way.  Rather HSPA and the agencies just wanted to shut down citizen journalism.  Senate Bill 369 easily passed both chambers.

In steps Governor Mike Pence who, with veto pen in hand, repelled the attack on open government.

It was the perfect opportunity for the Governor to brag about what he did, to counter some of the unfair attacks on his integrity and begin to restore his popularity.  So how did Governor Pence take advantage of the opportunity?  Did he hold a press conference or send out a press release with the veto message, both which would have given him free, positive media coverage all across the state?

No, he sent out a Tweet:

I vetoed SEA 369 over fee for public records searches - the cost of public records should never be a barrier to the public's right to know

— Governor Mike Pence (@GovPenceIN) May 8, 2015

Not only that, but a Tweet sent late Friday afternoon, the time you release BAD information when you want to kill a story?  Needless to say, the story which could have been a huge win for Governor Pence, got little coverage.

Even though a new communications director was appointed post-RFRA, the PR failures continue to mount.