Non-profit organizations and access to public information
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When government agencies outsource basic services to third-party non-profit contractors, one consequence is that the public may lose its access to information about the service that the public would have retained, had a government agency carried out the service directly.
A concern that previously public information will become privatized and inaccessible to the public when a government agency moves to contract out services to third-party vendors arises whether the third-party vendor is a non-profit organization or a for-profit organization. However, a number of key court cases in this area have arisen when non-profits have rebuffed requests for information under a state's right-to-know laws.
Friends of Piedmont Park v. The Piedmont Park Conservancy
The Piedmont Park Conservancy is a private non-profit that oversees and manages Piedmont Park. In 2007, when the organization moved forward with a plan to install a controversial parking structure, a group opposed to the plan—Friends of Piedmont Park—filed an open record request under Georgia Georgia's open records legislation[1] for records of the Conservancy. The request was declined, and the Friends group sued. On September 12, 2007, a Georgia judge ruled that the records must be made public.[2]
The Times of Trenton v. Lafayette Yard Community Development Corp.
In this case, the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously ruled in 2005 that Lafayette Yard CDC, a private non-profit, was subject to the provisions of New Jersey's open records (OPRA) legislation[1] because it issued city-backed bonds and the majority of its board was appointed by the city council of Trenton. The litigation arose because the board of Lafayette Yard CDC kicked a reporter for the Trenton newspaper out of a meeting on the grounds that, as a private non-profit, they were not subject to open records or open meetings laws.[3]
Gannon and Nichols v. the Board of Regents of the State of Iowa
In this 2005 case, the Iowa Supreme Court overturned a lower court and ruled that outsourcing a public function to a private board does not privatize the records of the private board. The court wrote, "In this appeal, we are asked to decide whether a government body may outsource one of its core functions to a private corporation, making that part of its operation nongovernmental and not subject to public scrutiny. We hold the Iowa State University Foundation, a recipient of such outsourcing, is performing a government function, and therefore its records are subject to disclosure."[4]
Kimberly Kay Allen v. John Day
Fourteen cheerleaders sued Powers Management, a private company that ran a public stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, on the grounds that their privacy had been violated by two employees of Powers Management. Powers Management reached an out-of-court settlement with the cheerleaders. The Tennessean asked for a copy of the settlement from Powers, on the grounds that Powers was functionally a government agency. In 2006, a Tennessee appeals court agreed with The Tennessean, ordering Powers to turn over a copy of the settlement to the newspaper.[5]