Sen. Ed McBroom

LANSING — Two bills co-sponsored by Sen. Ed McBroom that would expand the state’s Freedom of Information Act were approved by the Senate in late June.

McBroom, R-Waucedah Township, sponsored Senate Bills 669 and 670 along with Sen. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield. The bills are tie-barred, meaning both would need to be approved to take effect.

SB 669 would allow FOIA requests for records of the legislature and the offices of the governor and lieutenant governor, all of which are currently exempt. SB 670 would require the House speaker and Senate majority leader to designate a FOIA coordinator for each of their chambers, and lists the disclosure exemptions.

Both bills passed with a 36-2 vote.

McBroom had been working to pass legislation since first being elected to the state House in 2011.

“Since I found out that the administration and the legislature didn’t have some sort of law applying to them for open records, I felt that that was wrong and it leads to some justifiable distrust with the citizens, so I’ve been working to change that,” he said.

The state has routinely ranked near the bottom in government transparency ratings and anti-corruption measures. A 2015 review by the Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity placed Michigan’s government last in the country for ethics and transparency.

Legislation on FOIA reform had been moved out of the House that year, but stalled in the Senate. McBroom said a number of factors had coalesced to make the latest vote possible.

“The people running for office and the citizens voting for them have become more aware of the issue over the last several years, and therefore candidates are committing to supporting the policy as an election platform issue,” he said. “That’s a significant change, and it’s a big part of why there’s been increasing support.”

And when the first bills were proposed, legal opinions from attorneys in Lansing had dissuaded some legislators from voting for them; McBroom had disagreed. With those attorneys no longer serving the legislature, “it’s been a lot easier now to convince members that this is a good policy direction,” McBroom said.

McBroom said the bills tried to strike a balance between the public’s right to know and staying faithful to constitutional protections. The laws still exempt some communications, such as executive records related to security, executive privilege, or discussions about appointments, among other issues.

“It was important to give the governor some ability to do all that review process and not have it be subjected to FOIA and then have it be used for political gamesmanship in either party,” McBroom said.

Exemptions on the legislative side include communications between a legislator or a legislator’s office and a constituent, aside from registered lobbyists.

An amendment to the bill had sight to ensure the position of the FOIA coordinator was chosen by both parties, but was voted down along party lines. McBroom said the process of filling the position had been structured differently in earlier drafts, but had been adjusted by the new Democratic majority. If the FOIA coordinator takes their oath seriously, he said, they will do their job “in a fair and equitable way.”

McBroom said there would be chances to amend the law or add onto it in the future.

“The law in and of itself is fairly complicated and nuanced, which means there’s very likely to be updates after a few years as members of the public find out how well it does or doesn’t work,” McBroom said.

The bills must now also be approved by the state House and signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. If approved, they will take effect on Jan. 1 on the first odd-numbered year starting six months after the bill is enacted, according to a bill analysis by the Senate Fiscal Agency.

McBroom and Moss are optimistic the bill will receive a hearing before the end of summer, and can be adopted before the end of the year.

Michigan is one of only two states that exempts the executive office from FOIA laws. While most states have laws regarding their legislatures, many of them are pretty thin, McBroom said. He hopes the Michigan bills can serve as a model for other states looking for a bill that will withstand constitutional challenges and provide more access for citizens.

“It’s always been my contention that most citizens and media are going to find that open records for legislative office are pretty boring,” he said. “They’re going to discover most of us run a mundane ship where we’re discussing policy … it’s not going to be that exciting, but hopefully the law will be in place and will prevent the few legislators who skirt the rules and don’t do things above board.”