Indiana news media coalition raises concerns about delays in state public access office

A news media coalition, represented by Reporters Committee Indiana-based attorney Kris Cundiff, is raising concerns about what it calls an unlawful “pattern of inaction” at the state office tasked with enforcing Indiana’s public access laws.  

In a July 29 letter to Public Access Counselor Jennifer Ruby on behalf of WTHR-TV, the Indiana Capital Chronicle, IndyStar, Evansville Courier & Press, the Hoosier State Press Association, Indiana Broadcasters Association, and the Indiana Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, Cundiff argues that the Office of the Public Access Counselor has been plagued by delays that have made it significantly harder for news organizations to inform Hoosiers about their government. 

The OPAC is charged with resolving public access disputes through a formal complaint process that, by law, should take no more than a month. But instead, the letter argues, the OPAC has dragged its feet in response to complaints, flouting “crystal clear” statutory deadlines. A recent IndyStar analysis found that Ruby’s office took an average of nearly 250 days to issue an advisory opinion — more than eight times longer than the statutory requirement of 30 days. 

The “end result is that instead of helping facilitate agencies’ compliance with public records laws, the OPAC has become a black hole into which complaints disappear indefinitely,” the letter argues.

The letter requests a meeting with the OPAC within 30 days to discuss a path forward. If the OPAC isn’t willing to meet, the letter states that coalition members will take legal action to compel the PAC to follow the law. 

“Hoosiers seeking transparency from their government encounter many obstacles, but the Office of the Public Access Counselor should not be one of them,” the letter states. 

Hours after the media coalition sent the letter, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun said his office would assign two staff members to work on the three-person OPAC staff until the backlog of complaints is resolved. The OPAC will also post weekly metrics on its website to log the numbers of outstanding and resolved requests, the governor added in a statement. 

Read the full letter to the OPAC below.