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Our View: Public records reform falls short Friday Dec 30, 2016 at 12:01 AM After winning election to the final two years of former Gov. John Kitzhaber's term, Gov. Kate Brown is finally getting serious about the public records reforms she promised in the wake of Kitzhaber's resignation. Just not serious enough. When Kitzhaber was under increasing pressure to reveal details of the role his fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, was playing in his administration, he resisted releasing key documents involving contracts between Hayes and entities with an interest in state policy. After he resigned in February 2015, Brown was critical of those delays and vowed to support changes in state law to address the issue. The only progress made during the 2015 legislative session was a bill ordering an audit of public records requests to state agencies. Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum is still working with a task force on potential reforms to public records laws. Oregon once was a model for open government laws, but public records statutes have been riddled with exemptions over the years — there are now more than 500 — and the law contains no time limits on responses to requests for records or an independent entity to enforce them. The only recourse when a governor denies access to records is to file a lawsuit — a lengthy and expensive process. Brown's answer to these shortcomings is a bill to create the position of public records advocate or ombudsman to mediate disputes over public records. That's not a bad idea as far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough. As originally proposed, the position would be appointed by the governor and be part of the Department of Administrative Services, whose director also reports to the governor. Moreover, the ombudsman would have no power to order the release of any record — just to try to resolve the dispute. Other officials have suggested the ombudsman should work out of the secretary of state's office. As an independent elected official, the secretary of state would be less susceptible to pressure from the governor. The incoming secretary of state, however, is Dennis Richardson, the first Republican to hold that office in more than three decades. It's understandable that Brown, a Democrat and a former secretary of state, would be reluctant to have a public records ombudsman reporting to a Republican official. But having that person serve at the governor's pleasure under a department head who reports to the governor is an even worse idea. The ombudsman ideally should be entirely independent, and should have the power to order the release of records when the law requires it. That may be too much to hope for, as it would require the governor — and lawmakers — to cede authority to a third party. But even as a mediator, the ombudsman should not be under the governor's thumb. The Oregonian reported last week that Brown's staff has requested an amendment shifting the ombudsman to the secretary of state's office, and Brown told the newspaper, "We see this as a beginning of a conversation, not the end." Let the conversation begin.