(AP) — A bill that opens some but not all of the governor’s records to public scrutiny won final legislative passage in the Senate Monday after weeks of debate and negotiations in which Gov. Bobby Jindal’s allies deflected efforts to make his schedule public or preserve his documents for the archives. The bill will keep out of the public eye any governor’s office documents related to the “deliberative process” or intra-office communications among his top staffers. And it puts budgetary advice that state departments submit to the governor off-limits for six months. Jindal pushed the bill as an alternative to others aimed at lifting a decades-old exemption the governor’s office has enjoyed from the state open records law. The Senate voted 28-8 to approve the bill that already passed the House. The Senate debate was short but it was dominated by the bill’s most vehement opponent, Jindal’s fellow Republican, Sen. Robert Adley of Benton.
La. Senate OKs bill on governor’s records
June 24, 2009