Senate bill designed to fix email loophole

Two identical bills were introduced Thursday to fix the loophole in the Kansas Open Records Act that would allow private email accounts to be used to conduct business without being made public. One, SB 306, can be found here.

The bills generally follow a suggestion from Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt's proposal for requiring the disclosure of some private emails from public officials when they deal with government business.

Schmidt issued a legal opinion recently saying state employees using private accounts or devices are not covered by the records act. The law requires agencies and other government-funded entities to make their records available to the public. Later, he submitted a letter outlining how the law could be amended to open those records. It is attached.

Schmidt faced criticism for the opinion and said and later said the law should be revised.

The Kansas Press Association has said it would work closely with Schmidt and legislators on a fix.

Click here to read the AG's letter.