Amendment
Amend the bill by replacing section 7 with the following:
7 New Section; Penalty. Amend RSA 91-A by inserting after section 7 the following new section:
91-A:7-a Penalty. Whoever knowingly violates the provisions of this chapter shall be guilty of a violation.
AMENDED ANALYSIS
This bill amends RSA 91-A, the "right-to-know" law.
The bill defines "meetings", "public body", and "public proceedings", and states that RSA 91-A shall be liberally construed to provide the greatest access to records and meetings. The governor and governor's [HJ2 74] council and legislative committees of conference are included as public bodies.
It also requires that refusal of access to records exempt from public access be specifically based on statutory authority.
The bill adds a criminal penalty provision.
In addition, the bill rearranges certain sections of the current law for the sake of clarity.