College reporters have it covered at Statehouse

The
Indiana
Publisher
Published alternate Thursdays
Volume 76, Issue 2 • Thursday, January 20, 2011
PAPERS GET ACCESS TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY STORIES
New author
takes on
civil fine
legislation
HSPA works to address
other potential bills not so
friendly to public access
Tim Grimes/Franklin College Statehouse Bureau
Franklin College sophomore Samm Quinn, left, interviews
Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, after a speech by U.S. Rep.
Mike Pence, R-Ind., before the Indiana Senate on Jan. 18.
Stories by Franklin College student journalists are available
through HSPA’s online content-sharing service, InfoNet. To
access the stories, visit www.HSPAinfo.net.
College reporters have
it covered at Statehouse
HSPA and Franklin College’s
Pulliam School of Journalism are partnering to provide
coverage of state government
and politics for Indiana newspapers.
Student journalists will again
staff a Statehouse news bureau
covering the Indiana General Assembly, and this year
the stories will be available
through HSPA’s online con-
tent-sharing service, InfoNet.
All HSPA-member newspapers may use the stories regardless of whether they have
registered to share and acquire
stories through InfoNet.
Working with Franklin College’s journalism school on
this project was a no-brainer
because everyone wins, said
Stephen Key, HSPA executive
director and general counsel.
“The students gain real-life
experience, Indiana newspapers without the resources to
do so can provide current coverage of state government, and
Hoosiers have the opportunity
to learn more about what their
state government representatives are doing or contemplating,” Key said.
Goldsby recently answered these questions
about herself and her
role with ICAN, the backbone of HSPA’s budget
that also adds revenue
to newspapers’ bottom
lines:
Job title: Statewide
classified and 2x2 ad
coordinator
the classifieds and then
the front-page stories.
I really like Carson
Pirie Scott ads for the
coupons and the occasional Dunkin’ Donuts
coupons
Years with HSPA: Six
My job in a nutshell:
Placing the incoming
ads in our three ICAN
What my grandkids
call me: Mamaw
What makes me smile:
Sunshine, my grandchildren and my husband
– most of the time.
Shawn Goldsby coordinates HSPA’s Indiana Classified Advertising
Network. Contact her at [email protected] or (317) 803-4772.
advertising program
networks, plus administrative/clerical work
including keeping HSPA
databases updated,
tearsheeting and sending out mailings.
Favorite part of the
job: That it’s such a variety! I like all of it – well,
not the tearsheeting.
Favorite sections of the
newspaper: Of course
See Legislation, Page 4
See Reporters, Page 2
Meet your ICAN coordinator: Shawn Goldsby
Put a face to the friendly
voice who handles all
your Indiana Classified Advertising Network
needs at HSPA – Shawn
Goldsby.
Rep. Kathy Richardson, R-Noblesville,
will serve as author of House legislation
that would allow a judge to
levy a civil fine for deliberate violations of the Open
Door Law or Access to
Public Records Act, according to Speaker of the House
Brian Bosma.
Kathy
Bosma has served as
Richardson
either a co-author or cosponsor of the legislation for the past two
sessions but will not put his name on bills
now that he is speaker.
Richardson, a former Hamilton County
clerk of the courts, has been a supporter
of transparency in government for years,
said Stephen Key, HSPA executive director and general counsel.
“I’ve know Kathy since my days as a
reporter at the Noblesville Ledger,” Key
said. “I’m confident she’ll do a good
job of shepherding this bill through the
House.”
Similar to Senate Bill 70, filed this session by Sen. Sue Landske, R-Cedar Lake,
the currently unnumbered House bill also
will contain two other provisions:
• Local government agencies with
e-mail capabilities would be required to
give electronic notice of meetings under
the Open Door Law if requested to do so
by citizens.
• The Indiana Public Access Counselor
Favorite food group:
Meat and ’taters – then
junk food
Dream vacation: A long
cruise someplace warm
How I take my coffee:
Cream only and preferably with donuts
HSPA opposes
bills allowing
expungement
The state legislature has at least six
bills filed this session that would allow for
the expungement of court and law enforcement records in some felony cases.
HSPA has opposed such legislation because it doesn’t believe the action solves
the problem legislators are trying to address, said Stephen Key, HSPA executive
director and general counsel.
“Many legislators are concerned with
the ability for individuals who have felony
convictions to gain employment after they
have served their sentence,” Key said. “If
unable to find a job, they may revert to
the behavior that put them into the criminal court system the first time.”
The inclusion of that felony conviction
on a job application may eliminate an
individual from any consideration for a
job with many employers concerned with
See Expungement, Page 4
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Page 2
2011 Calendar
Jan. 29
APME/HSPA Foundation Job Fair,
IUPUI campus, Indianapolis
Feb. 2-3
HSPA/HSPA Foundation annual meetings, Indianapolis Marriott
HSPA Board of Directors
HSPA Officers
President: Don Hurd, Kankakee Valley Publishing
Vice President: Tim Timmons, The Paper of Montgomery
County ( Crawfordsville), The Times (Noblesville)
Secretary: Greg Morris, IBJ Corporation
Treasurer: Jim Kroemer, Goshen News
HSPA Board Members
Dailies
Randy List, Rust Communications
Jack D. Pate, Evansville Courier & Press
Robyn McCloskey, Pharos-Tribune (Logansport), Kokomo Tribune
Tina West, The Courier-Times (New Castle)
Nondailies
Robert Allman, All Printing & Publishing Inc.
John Haley, Pulaski County Journal (Winamac)
Jon O’Bannon, The Corydon Democrat
Kathy Tretter, Dubois-Spencer Co. Publishing Co. Inc.
HSPA Foundation Board of Directors
HSPA Foundation Officers
President: Mayer Maloney, Hoosier Times Inc.
Vice President: Henry Bird, The Herald Bulletin (Anderson)
Secretary: John Rumbach, The Herald (Jasper)
Treasurer: Jeff Rogers, Home News Enterprises
HSPA Foundation Board of Directors
Linda Chandler, Ripley Publishing
Curt Jacobs, The Madison Courier
Barbara King, North Vernon Plain Dealer & Sun
Pat Lanman, Vevay Newspapers Inc.
Kevin Lashbrook, Landmark Community Newspapers
HSPA staff
Stephen Key, executive director and general counsel
[email protected] • (317) 624-4427
Karen T. Braeckel, HSPA Foundation director
[email protected] • (317) 624-4426
Pamela Lego, MAP advertising director
[email protected] • (812) 350-7711
Milissa Tuley, communications specialist
[email protected] • (317) 624-4430
Yvonne Yeadon, office manager
[email protected] • (317) 624-4433
Shawn Goldsby, ICAN and ICAN Plus coordinator
[email protected] • (317) 803-4772
The Indiana Publisher is published bi-weekly by
Hoosier State Press Association,
41 E. Washington St., Suite 301, Indianapolis, IN, 46204,
(317) 803-4772. ISSN 0019-6711 USPS 058-730.
Periodicals-class postage paid at Indianapolis, Ind.,
and at additional mailing office.
Postmaster: Send address changes to
41 E. Washington St., Suite 301, Indianapolis, IN, 46204,
(317) 803-4772, Fax (317) 624-4428.
Website: www.hspa.com
Subscriptions $25 per year. Ad rates furnished upon request.
Board president Hurd’s son injured in fire
HSPA members’ thoughts
and prayers
are with
the family of board
president Don
Hurd.
His son,
Don Hurd
Kyle Hurd,
was seriously injured in a
fire Jan. 9 in Lafayette.
Hurd was taken to a local
hospital and then airlifted to
Wishard Memorial Hospital’s burn unit in Indianapolis.
The elder Hurd said his
son is suffering from serious
lung damage and burns on 6
percent of his body.
Kyle Hurd remains at
Wishard Hospital.
A child playing with a
lighter reportedly started
the fire that injured Hurd,
according to the Lafayette
Fire Department.
Don Hurd is president of
Kankakee Valley Publishing.
Learn about, discuss the role of courts in U.S.
A program on the role of
courts in a democracy is
scheduled for
February in
Indianapolis.
Newspaper
editors and
other staff
members are
encouraged to Dennis
Ryerson
attend.
“We the People or We the
Courts?” is designed to offer
education and discussion
about the role of courts in
the United States.
The program is set for 1:30
p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Feb. 15
at Martin University, 22nd
Street and Sherman Drive in
Indianapolis.
Program highlights will
include:
• A panel discussion about
courts and society with
federal judge Sarah Evans
Barker, Indianapolis Star
Editor and Vice President
Dennis Ryerson and Indiana
University law professor
John Lawrence Hill.
• A presentation from
Indiana Supreme Court Justice Robert D. Rucker on how
judges are selected and how
the Supreme Court works.
• Indiana attorneys discussing public reaction to
judges’ rulings.
The event is free and open
to the public.
It is sponsored by the
American Bar Association
Judicial Division, Indiana
Supreme Court, Indiana
State Bar Association, Indianapolis Bar Association and
Marion County Bar Association.
For more information, contact Kathryn Dolan, Indiana
Supreme Court public information officer, at kdolan@
courts.state.in.us.
SPJ competition open to newspapers, individuals
The deadline for the Best
in Indiana Journalism
Awards is Jan. 31.
The contest, sponsored
by the Indiana Professional
chapter of the Society of
Professional Journalists, includes nearly 100 categories
in print, television, radio and
online journalism.
Download the contest
brochure and entry forms at
www.spjcontest.com.
Contest details include:
• News organizations are
encouraged to submit work
on behalf of their staffs, but
individuals are also welcome
to enter work.
• Per-entry fees are $20
for professionals and $15 for
students.
• Submissions will be
accepted online for most
categories.
Entries must be received
by 5 p.m.
Jan. 31. For contest information and forms,
visit www.spjcontest.com or
www.indyprospj.org.
Reporters
“John Krull’s kids
often do stories
on topics that
The Associated Press
cannot do – regional
or economic issues
like coal-bed
methane development
and Department of
Correction issues –
that mean a great deal
to our readers.”
selecting stories, the attention line lists counties that
may be most interested.
The Sullivan Daily Times
was among the first Indiana
newspapers to work with
Franklin College on the project.
“John Krull’s kids often do
stories on topics that The
Associated Press cannot
do – regional or economic
issues like coal-bed methane
development and Department of Correction issues
– that mean a great deal to
our readers,” Daily Times
Editor Tom Gettinger said.
“And with lean times at AP
and tighter news holes everywhere, we as an industry
can’t let mundane General
Assembly coverage sneak
into our pages at all.”
Only HSPA-member papers have authorization to
use the copyrighted stories.
For more information on
InfoNet, contact Shawn
Goldsby at sgoldsby@
hspa.com or (317) 803-4772.
For more information on
the Statehouse Bureau, contact Krull at jkrull@
franklincollege.edu.
Continued from Page 1
For the past six years,
Frank­­lin College has operated a Statehouse bureau
during its January term.
The students involved write
and report stories for participating Indiana newspapers.
When the project started
in 2005, six newspapers
participated. This year, more
than 30 are involved.
John Krull, director of
Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism,
said the college started the
Statehouse project for two
reasons.
“The first is that it provides superb experience and
training for our students,”
Krull said. “The second is
that we believe newspapers
should be watchdogs of
government, and in these
difficult days for newspapers
we want to help with that
important work.”
The Franklin Statehouse
bureau generates between
30 and 50 stories a week.
Tom Gettinger
Sullivan Daily Times editor
During this pilot year of
the HSPA-Franklin College
partnership, all HSPA member papers can access them
regardless of participation in
InfoNet.
To access to the students’
stories and InfoNet, go to
www.hspainfo.net. Click
“Statehouse Bureau” on the
navigation bar. It includes a
list of headlines and the first
sentence of the lead.
To further assist editors in
Member notice
Employees sought
and weekend work and is entrylevel.
Online Content Reporter – Fort
Wayne Newspapers is looking
for a full-time online content
reporter for FortWayne.com and
its satellite sites. This person will
create, edit and update content
for websites, smartphones and
other online technologies. The
position requires flexible hours
The candidate will possess solid
news judgment; AP Style writing
skills; excellent headline writing,
copy editing and social media
skills; and strong technical skills.
The person will work closely with
the new media editor. Other skills
and qualifications include CMS,
basic HTML and Photoshop,
SEO, news judgment, video
editing and bachelor’s degree or
equivalent in journalism. Send
résumé and published writing
samples to Mary Lou Brink, interactive media director, at mbrink@
fortwayne.com.
Send member notices to mtuley@
hspa.com. Postings will be listed
as space permits in print and in
full at www.hspa.com.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Page 3
News in brief
Editors promoted at KPC Media
Alfred Degrafinreid II, left, and Jesus Rivera are HSPA’s
legislative interns for the 2011 Indiana General Assem-
bly. Both men are students at the Indiana University
School of Law at Indianapolis.
Interns get taste of lobbying
HSPA’s legislative interns
for this session of the Indiana General Assembly have
a range of experiences they
are putting to work for state
newspapers.
Jesus Rivera and Alfred
Degrafinreid II will split a
40-hour work week for the
next four months while they
maintain HSPA’s bill database and do other tasks to
keep tabs on legislation that
could affect public access to
information.
During each session of
the General Assembly, two
law school students help
HSPA executive director
and general counsel Stephen
Key sort, prioritize and track
hundreds of bills.
“They serve as extra eyes
and ears so that HSPA can
cover multiple legislative
committee meetings or action
on the House and Senate
floor,” Key said.
The interns have an interest in using their degrees in
the public sector or lobbying
after graduating from the
Indiana University School of
Law at Indianapolis.
“Hopefully, Alfred and
Jesus will gain a good understanding of how bills become
law and the role lobbyists
play in that process,” Key
said. “At least three former
interns who have helped me
in the past will be working
the hallways in lobbying
capacities during this legislative session.”
Rivera, 26, is in his final
semester of study.
He most recently interned
with the Marion County Office of Corporation Counsel,
which offers legal defense for
the city of Indianapolis.
During the summer, he
worked as a clerk for Judge
Melissa S. May in the Indiana Court of Appeals.
After graduation Rivera
HSPA interns Alfred Degrafinreid II, left, and Jesus Rivera sort through bills
in the Legislative Services Agency bill room at the Indiana Statehouse.
hopes to work in government
or civil law. He has applied
with the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps.
The traveling required
as a JAG lawyer appeals to
Rivera, as does serving his
country.
“I think you’re doing something pretty noble,” he said
of defending military personnel. “I’d like to do something
worthwhile with the skills
I’ve acquired through federal
funding.”
The Plymouth native graduated from Purdue University in 2007 with bachelor’s
degrees in accounting and
management.
Degrafinreid, 26, earned a
bachelor’s degree in speech
pathology from Tennessee
State University in 2006.
The Memphis, Tenn., native
worked for a year as a political fundraiser before returning to Tennessee State and
earning a master of public
administration degree in
2008.
Currently in his second
year of law school, Degrafinreid recently served as a law
clerk for Lee Cossell Kuehn
& Love in Indianapolis.
Before law school he
worked as a fundraiser for
the vice mayor of Nashville,
Tenn., and then worked for
the speaker pro tem of the
Tennessee House of Representatives.
He wants a career in lobbying.
“There’s always a negative connotation associated
with lobbyists,” Degrafinreid
said. “But it’s protecting the
people and representing the
people if you’re doing it in a
good way.”
In addition to maintaining
the database HSPA uses to
track bills, Degrafinreid and
Rivera will attend committee hearings, observe House
and Senate sessions and talk
to legislators about concerns
HSPA has with bills.
Weighing all the options
regarding whether to support or oppose a bill is the
most interesting part of the
job, Rivera said.
“I’m learning that it’s a
balancing act,” he said.
For Degrafinreid, working
on the lobbying side of lawmaking is an eye-opener.
“I’ve always worked on the
other side in the legislature,”
Degrafinreid said. “As a lobbyist, you don’t know what’s
going on, but you have to
find out.”
Getting to know HSPA’s interns
Jesus Rivera
Dream car: Mercedes-Benz CLK
500
Favorite ice cream: Cookie
dough
A book he recommends: “The
Stranger” by Albert Camus, because of its philosophical themes
Favorite food: Torta, a Mexican
sandwich
Most recent movie he saw:
“Inception”
Alfred Degrafinreid II
Dream car: “Anything with four
wheels that drives and I have the
ownership rights to.”
Favorite ice cream: Sherbet
A book he recommends: “Never
Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi,
about how to develop long-lasting
business relationships
Favorite food: Lasagna
Most recent movie he saw:
“Inception”
Dave Kurtz, an editor
for KPC Media Group
for the
past 35
years,
has been
named
executive
editor for
Dave Kurtz
the newspaper group’s three daily
newspapers in northeast
Indiana.
“Dave has the experience, skill and leadership qualities needed to
tackle this new position
within our company,”
said KPC Media president and publisher Terry
G. Housholder. “He will
work with the staffs to
better coordinate our
print and online coverage of the communities
we serve.”
KPC publishes The
News Sun, covering
Noble and LaGrange
counties, The Star in
DeKalb County and The
Herald Republican in
Steuben County.
A native of Kendallville, Kurtz graduated
from East Noble High
School and from Michigan State University.
He worked for KPC as a
college intern and joined
the company full-time in
1974. He became the editor of The Star (Auburn)
in 1975.
Kurtz will divide his
time between the company’s offices in Auburn
and Kendallville. He and
his wife, Betsy RodecapKurtz, have three adult
sons and four grandchildren.
Housholder also announced that Mike Marturello has been named
associate editor for
the KPC dailies under
Kurtz.
Marturello will retain the title of editor
of The Herald Republican and will continue
to manage the editorial
operations in the Angola
office.
Matt Getts, who had
served as editor of The
News Sun since 2001,
will continue as a member of the KPC editorial
board, along with supervision of the Sunday
editions of the KPC
dailies.
He will assume an expanded role as supervisor
for the KPC daily newspaper sports department
and as senior reporter for
the dailies.
Hoosier journalist moves south
Tony Cotten recently
accepted the position of
publisher
of the Oldham Era
newspaper in La
Grange,
Ky.
The Old­­­­ Tony Cotton
ham Era
is a 5,400 paid broadsheet weekly that serves
Oldham County and
the towns of Buckner,
Crestwood, Goshen, La
Grange, Pewee Valley
and Prospect.
The Oldham Era also
publishes The Marketplace, a 24,000-circulation
shopper, and is a part of the
Landmark Com­­­munity
Newspapers Corp.
Cotten, the former
publisher of The Daily
Sun and Sun Times
newspapers in Boone
County, Ind., arrives at
the Era with seven years
of newspaper leadership
experience.
Family’s trust makes final grants
A trust established by
longtime newspaper owners has been closed after
27 years of funding community needs in Whitley
County.
The John and Hester
Adams Trust awarded
more than $2 million in
grants to diverse nonprofit organizations during its
existence.
The trust’s final two
grants, distributed Dec.
21, were $20,000 to Columbia City’s park board
and $4,500 to the Whitley County Historical
Society. All of the money
in the trust has been
disbursed.
The Adams Trust was
established through the
generosity of Hester Little
Adams.
She and her husband
were the owners/publishers of the Columbia City
Post and the CommercialMail newspapers from
1951 until her death in
1981.
More than 100 years of
newspaper ownership by
the Adams family ended
when she died.
The trust began in
1983 with funds from the
sale of The Post & Mail
Publishing Co. and from
Hester Adams’ personal
holdings.
Send promotions, announcements, staff changes
and other corporate news to [email protected].
Page 4
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Bill targets industry that embraces recycling
For the second consecutive
year, Rep. David Wolkins, RWinona Lake, wants to slap a
tax on newspaper publishers.
But this year, only publishers of daily newspapers
would be targeted by his
newsprint “fee.”
H.B. 1234 would tax every
ton of newsprint used by
a publisher who prints a
newspaper at least five days
a week. The tax would be
$25 a ton, but it would be
reduced by $25 for each ton
of newsprint used that has
at least 40 percent recycled
fiber content.
To gauge the potential
impact, let’s look at two Fort
Wayne Newspapers publications (Journal Gazette and
News-Sentinel), since they
are the largest daily newspapers near Wolkins’ hometown. According to the most
recent recycled newsprint
survey HSPA performed for
the Indiana Department of
Environmental Management, the two Fort Wayne
newspapers used 10,615 tons
of newsprint in 2005.
Virgin newsprint accounted for 44 percent of that tonnage. That’s 4,671 tons taxed
at $25 a ton, or $116,775.
To try and mitigate that
amount, we look at the 5,944
tons of recycled newsprint
Fort Wayne Newspapers
used. Unfortunately, the
average recycled fiber content of that newsprint is 39
percent, a tick under the
40-percent threshold.
If each of those recycled
newsprint tons was 39
percent, Fort Wayne gets no
relief and each is taxed at
$25, or $148,600.
The combined “fee” for both
virgin and recycled newsprint would be $265,375.
If half of the recycled
newsprint contained 41 percent recycled fiber and the
other half was at 37 percent
recycled fiber content, Fort
Wayne could subtract the
above 40 percent tonnage
from an equal amount of ton-
HSPA Hotline
The following questions
came from Spencer Evening World, Daily Reporter
(Greenfield), and The Republic (Columbus):
Q
Our newly elected
county clerk intends
to stop allowing
the newspaper access to records of
property transfers and other
vital statistics such as marriages and civil and criminal
judgments. He is claiming
confidentiality.
Do you have any information you can send to me
showing that we as a newspaper are allowed access to
such records?
You need to point
him to the Access
to Public Records
Act (IC 5-14-3),
specifically to IC 5-14-3-1,
which states the burden is
on the public official that
would deny access to a record to show what statutory
basis he would have to deny
that record.
He can also look at IC
5-14-3-9(c).
Let him know that you
believe those records are
disclosable public records
and if he would like a second
opinion, he can check with
the state’s Public Access
Counselor, Andrew Kossack,
at (317) 233-9435.
A
Q
Our newly elected
county clerk denied
access today to a
probable cause affidavit in a criminal
matter.
The case involves charges
of incest and molesting, and
the clerk wouldn’t turn the
document over because the
victim is a juvenile. The suspect is an adult.
We’ve never had trouble
getting probable cause affidavits in molesting cases before.
I thought only a judge could
order such records sealed.
Are we missing something?
A
Under Administrative Rule 9, you
should be able to
get the probable
cause affidavit unless it was
sealed by a judge. It isn’t up
to the clerk to decide.
Since the victim is a juvenile and it is a sex crime, the
court or clerk should make
sure that the victim’s name
(except for initials), address,
phone number and date of
birth are redacted from the
copy you receive.
Q
The Columbus
Commons Board,
an entity charged
with managing the
public portions of
the Commons Mall, has announced an executive session
“for discussions on strategy
with respect to the lease of
real estate.” The Commons
Board is about to decide
which of two nonprofit agencies will receive the master
lease for the public portions
of the Commons Mall.
The Commons Board now
wants to discuss this decision
in executive session. What are
your thoughts on that?
The strategy exception in Indiana
code is for situations where the
governing body is attempting to purchase or lease the
property from another party.
A governing body needs to be
able to protect the top price
it’s willing to offer.
When the governing body
is the entity selling or leasing its property to someone
else, strategy isn’t needed
because state law prescribes
how that process will work.
The Commons Board needs
to discuss the options in an
open meeting unless it can
find a provision that would allow for an executive session.
A
Have a media law question for Stephen Key, HSPA
executive director and general
counsel? Contact him at skey@
hspa.com or (317) 624-4427.
Key
Points
By Stephen Key
nage not meeting that goal.
The offset would reduce Fort
Wayne’s tax to that covering
the virgin newsprint used, or
$116,775.
Now let’s look at The Herald in Jasper. That newspaper used 582 tons of newsprint, all of it recycled.
Oops, the average recycled
fiber content from the paper
mill they used was only 22
percent, so every ton gets the
tax. The bill from the state of
Indiana would be for $14,550.
Wolkins’ concern is legitimate. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, newspapers comprise up
to 13 percent of the space in
U.S. landfills. Wolkins’ bill
would put the tax into the
Legislation
Continued from Page 1
or a judge would be required
to examine unredacted documents when the redaction is
challenged by a citizen.
Sen. Travis Holdman,
R-Mackle, will seek to add
an amendment to S.B. 70 to
prohibit a copying fee when
a citizen receives a public
record through the Internet
from a public agency.
Other public access bills
HSPA has registered its
opposition to S.B. 84, which
would prevent public access to accident reports for
90 days, even though the
bill exempts the media from
the restriction. The bill was
introduced by Sen. Jean
Leising, R-Oldenburg.
“While we appreciate
Sen. Leising’s concern with
lawyers who use the records to contact potential
clients, the bill addresses
the public’s right to inspect
and copy documents, not
inappropriate behavior,” Key
said. “This would set a bad
precedent of closing records
as a deterrent to bad activi-
Expungement
Continued from Page 1
the individual’s value system
or the possibility of liability
from a lawsuit if the individual breaks the law while
an employee.
Expungement seals court
and law enforcement records as if the arrest and
conviction never happened.
The legislation encourages
individuals with expunged
records to answer job application questions concerning
arrests or convictions as if
they didn’t occur.
HSPA opposes this policy
because it doesn’t work and
it attempts to rewrite the
historical record contained
state’s Solid Waste Management Fund, which provide
grants and loans to promote
recycling and the use of
recycled materials, waste
reduction, and management
of yard waste and household
hazardous waste.
Indiana newspapers share
the goal of reducing the
amount of newspapers that
go into landfills.
My concern is the selectivity of his tax efforts.
According to the EPA, only
lead-acid batteries surpass
the 88 percent recycled recovery rate of newspapers.
Why tax an industry that
is so successful in having its
product recycled?
The EPA reports that containers and packaging make
up the largest portion of
solid waste generated in the
United States at 33 percent.
Nondurable goods, which
include newspapers, account
for 24 percent of the waste,
followed by yard trimmings
at 13 percent.
H.B. 1234 doesn’t tax any
of the products you find on
the shelves at Walmart,
packaged in cardboard and
plastic, even though packaging accounts for one-third of
waste generated.
H.B. 1234 doesn’t tax any
of the millions of Hoosiers
who cut their grass, trim
bushes and pick up sticks
that have fallen from their
trees, even though that accounts for as much landfill
space as newspapers.
The Indiana Department
of Environmental Management was so pleased with
the efforts of state newspapers to increase the use of
recycled newsprint that it
asked HSPA to stop conducting a survey every other year
on recycled newsprint.
Does this sound like an industry that should be singled
out for a killer tax?
ties rather than addressing
the bad activities directly
while keeping public access
available.”
In a similar vein, Rep.
Phil Hinkle, R-Indianapolis,
introduced H.B. 1068, which
would make home address
information of law enforcement officers confidential in
public records.
The concern is that people
will post the information on
the Internet to encourage
people to harass an officer or
his or her family.
Both Hinkle and Leising
appeared willing to change
their original language after
hearing HSPA’s concerns.
Sen. Connie Lawson,
R-Danville, has a bill that
includes an Open Door Law
provision allowing aviation
boards to meet in secret for
board performance training.
This is like a provision currently in the law for school
boards.
When HSPA discussed
S.B. 60 with Lawson, she
said the concern raised by
the aviation boards was the
ability to discuss security
issues. Key has prepared a
memo for the senator showing that airport security
issues already can be discussed by these boards in executive session and that the
language in her bill would
not be appropriate.
HSPA has suggested an
amendment to S.B. 31,
authored by Sen. Randy
Head, R-Logansport. The
bill creates databases on
taxing jurisdictions, but the
language was vague regarding the rights of citizens to
access the information.
Head was amenable to
language that would clarify
that the information would
be public records available
for inspection and copying.
HSPA also plans to talk
to Sen. Ron Alting, R-Lafayette, about S.B. 58, which
includes an expansion of the
Open Door Law provision allowing executive sessions for
certain strategic purposes.
Alting’s language would
allow for closed-door sessions to discuss strategy
about the sale or lease of a
public agency’s property or
school consolidation.
Current law allows for
discussion when a public
agency is trying to buy or
lease property from a private entity.
in public records.
“A 10-minute Google
search will find 30 background check entities,” Key
said. “These entities either
create their own databases or
tap into databases that collect arrest and court records
on a daily basis.”
Even if Indiana seals some
arrest and court records, the
information already captured by the databases will
not be erased, he said.
“Instead of helping that
individual get a job, it will
hurt his chances,” Key said.
“The applicant says he has
no conviction, knowing his
court records have been
expunged, but the company
uses a private backgroundcheck firm, which reports
the conviction. The employer
assumes the individual lied
on his application and immediately rejects it.”
The bill numbers and
authors of the expungement
bills include:
• H.B. 1211 – Rep. Eric
Turner, R-Marion
• H.B. 1289 – Rep. Milo
Smith, R-Columbus
• S.B. 392 – Sen. Greg
Taylor, D-Indianapolis
• S.B. 393 – Sen. Greg
Taylor, D-Indianapolis
• S.B. 407 – Sen. Earline
Rogers, D-Gary
• S.B. 142 – Sen. Lonnie
Randolph, D- East Chicago.
Key said there may be additional bills on this subject
that he hasn’t uncovered
yet.
Stephen Key is executive
director and general counsel
of HSPA.