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Ga. Representative: Open records bill designed to help recruiting
A member of Georgia's House of Representatives said proposed changes to the state's open records law to benefit athletic departments within the state is to help with recruiting.
According to Rep. Earl Ehrhart (R), the bill that would give athletic departments 90 days to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests instead of the now-three day timeframe was to give Georgia schools a chance to recruit players in relative secrecy. From WXIA:
“The pure and only intention on this is… so people don’t have access to find out who our schools are recruiting,” state Rep. Earl Ehrhart told 11Alive News.
Ehrhart wrote the bill with the input of Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart, who indicated Georgia schools were at a competitive disadvantage recruiting ballplayers.
"When I went over to the Capitol I was asked – what’s the difference in our program and some of programs I’ve been in in the past," Smart said Tuesday. "That’s one of the things I brought up. There’s a difference." He declined to elaborate.
With a three-month waiting period on FOIA requests, any evidence of a recruiting visit could be uncovered through public documents long after it took place. While we get why state universities would want to be cloaked in as much secrecy as possible, can't we all agree that our state governments have much better things to do with their time?
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Smart said Tuesday that he didn't deserve any credit for the bill, though he admitted he had spoken to lawmakers about it. The athletic department part of the bill is an amendment to Senate Bill 323 which has been approved by both branches of Georgia's legislature.
Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said his department was slammed with FOIA requests and the current three-day turnaround was tough to live up to. Here's what McGarity said Wednesday via OnlineAthens.com when he was asked about a possible full-time staff member assigned to help with all FOIA requests.
Couldn’t you, with the budget you have and the money coming in, afford to have an Open Records manager to handle that kind of stuff full time.
McGarity: "Sure but there are so many ideas that people have out there. Right now with the way we operate, it’s taxing to a lot of people."
The bill would be passed into law if signed by Georgia's governor. And if it's approved, we're interested to see how many football-crazed state governments follow suit with similar measures.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
