Lawmakers in Annapolis are looking to expand the state’s public records laws after reports that Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and his staff use mobile apps that can automatically delete messages after a certain amount of time.
When Montgomery County Del. Vaughn Stewart spoke about the bill in a committee hearing Tuesday, he never actually mentioned the governor by name. Instead, his arguments focused more on the need for more transparency, regardless of who is in office.
Stewart told members of the House Health and Government Operations Committee that HB 395 will “essentially modernize the language and ensure that the record retention schedules include written, electronic, or recorded communications between state officials about state business.”
The bill also specifically clarifies that the governor can be considered a “unit of government,” a technicality that executives from both parties have tried to quibble with in years past. It’s never been directly litigated and Stewart said he doubts the argument would hold up if it was.
“Marylanders have a right to know how decisions were made by the officials that they voted for and that they financed with their taxpayer dollars,” Stewart added. “Maryland should strive to have the most transparent government in the country and by clarifying the definition and closing this big loophole” he said the state would move closer to that.
Other supporters focused more on the transparency aspect, too.
“We think that it is very important to ensure that we’re looking at all records,” said Rebecca Snyder, who was representing the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association. “Not splitting hairs on the format, but focusing on the records that state officials and employees are creating in the course of their duties.”
The only one to speak out and directly reference recently reported stories about the Hogan administration’s use of the mobile messaging app Wickr was Morgan Drayton, a policy and engagement manager with Common Cause Maryland.
She said the use of the app, which can automatically delete messages after a certain amount of time, can make it “impossible to access what could be considered public records through the public information act.”
Citing other apps that have similar features, “There’s no telling if this is happening with other public officials or state employees,” Drayton said. “Transparency is impossible if state officials and employees are able to shield information through the use of these digital platforms.”
While the entire committee hearing lasted a couple of hours, discussion on the bill took less than 10 minutes and no one spoke against it.
However the governor’s office pushed back on the need for the law in a statement to the Baltimore Sun, calling it “blatantly partisan and hypocritical.”
“While our office releases records on a regular basis to the media and the public, legislators largely operate in secret — redistricting being a prominent recent example, where they stonewalled basic requests for information,” Mike Ricci, a spokesman for the governor, said in a statement provided to the Sun.
In the past, Hogan has downplayed the use of the apps, saying, “There’s nothing inappropriate” about the use of the app.
