Nixon

As I wrote in my column on the mother ship today, the two court-appointed attorneys involved in the case seeking to determine if the office of Gov. Matt Blunt violated Sunshine Law, want to see the law made stronger. One of the lawyers, Joe Maxwell, was a Democratic senator the last time the law was rewritten, and he was involved. The other, Louis Leonatti, is a Republican who made it clear this week that the law needs many fixes.

But they aren’t the only ones clamoring for change. Creve Coeur city councilwoman Laura Bryant is still steaming that Attorney General Jay Nixon (who will become governor on Monday) hasn’t issued a ruling sought by outgoing Sen. John Loudon about whether or not senators and representatives are covered by the Sunshine Law. According to Bryant, Nixon’s office has punted on issuing a ruling. Loudon had been seeking such a ruling for about a year and had been joined by the Missouri Press Association in seeking a ruling. Now, if such a ruling is still wanted, another senator or representative will have to seek it from new Attorney General Chris Koster.

There is some dispute about whether House members or Senators must follow the Sunshine Law individually. Last year’s House and Senate leadership cited a couple of court rulings that indicate that individual members of a public body aren’t, by themselves, public bodies. Thus, both in the House and Senate, Sunshine Law requests for e-mails and other documents have been denied.

But the law isn’t clear, and the court rulings don’t necessarily apply to every record, and some dispute the rulings made by lawyers working for the House and Senate. Loudon sought a ruling in part because Bryant and others were seeking records from former state Rep. Sam Page about an ethics complaint he had filed.

The controversy was wrapped up in the race for lieutenant governor, but has still been watched by many other folks hoping for some clarity.

That’s what the Sunshine Law lacks, said Leonatti this week: clarity.

Will lawmakers, or Nixon, push for a better law? Interestingly enough, the state representative who proposed a fix last year that mirrors some of Leonatti’s complaints about the law, outgoing state Rep. Jeff Harris, D-Columbia, will be the policy director for Nixon’s office come Monday.