PORTLAND, Ore. (Legal Newsline) — Oregon Attorney General Ellen F. Rosenblum announced June 12 that her public reform legislation, Senate Bill 481, was unanimously advanced in the state’s House of Representatives. The bill will now go before the governor.
"When it comes to public records requests, Oregonians are entitled to both transparency and timeliness. I am proud to have spearheaded the most significant reform to our public records law in over 40 years,” Rosenblum said.
“When the Governor signs this bill into law, for the first time ever there will be deadlines by which records requests must be acknowledged and records turned over by public agencies—or an explanation must be given for any delay. My office will be charged with cataloguing all exemptions that are spread out throughout the Oregon statutes. I’d like to thank all of our legislative sponsors for their support championing these important changes.”
Rosenblum’s bill is the result of work conducted by her Public Records Law Reform Task Force. Under the bill, public bodies would be required to acknowledge receipt of public record requests within five business days. From that point, the public bodies would have 10 days to respond to the request or provide a statement of when it would.