Far and away the most contentious and publicly contested component in the Amendment 1 Clean Missouri ballot measure passed by voters in November is its overhaul of the way voting districts are drawn up.

Most Democrats supported the proposal, with the exception of some members of the Legislative Black Caucus, while most members of the GOP, including the Missouri Republican Party, solidified opposition to it.

Its supporters claimed it would prevent either party from gaining an unfair advantage while opponents contended it favored Democrats.  Republican Governor Mike Parson told the Associated Press that he wants Amendment 1 repealed over its redistricting portion.

But lawmakers started to pay attention to another section of the measure after it passed, the portion that affected them directly on a day-to-day basis.

As written, Amendment 1 subjects records of official activities of the House and Senate, their committees as well as individual lawmakers and their staffs to the state’s “Sunshine Law” that requires openness in government.

Every lawmaker is now a custodian of records who is responsible for responding to public records requests for documents and information from their office. That means 34 Senators and 163 Representatives are the keepers of records for themselves and their staffs.

The Chief Clerk of the House and Secretary of the Senate are custodians for records pertaining to each chamber.

Dana Rademan Millier has been Chief Clerk of the Missouri House since late October. She says a major priority is establishing guidelines for lawmakers, who as custodians of records, will have to establish their own retention policies for documents such as emails. “I think it’s important that they have options available and some best practices because they’re really going to need to have some sort of retention policies, based on the new constitutional provisions that were enacted,” said Rademan Millier.

She said she’s been meeting with the secretary of state’s office to get assistance in establishing standards to comply with the Sunshine Law. Rademan Miller stated that the secretary’s office told her that lawmakers probably aren’t destroying information such as email too quickly, but are likely retaining it longer than needed in order to reference the data it contains.

Some lawmakers have made statements that constituents personal information communicated to them will become public record.  Rademan Miller says further clarification of the “Sunshine Law” will determine if such a contention is true. “I think it’s a gray area with the plain reading of the sunshine law,” Rademan Miller said. “There are exemptions there, but there’s definitely not like a blanket provision that provides an exemption for all constituent correspondence.”

Chapter 610 in Missouri law is the foundation of the Sunshine Law.  It includes 24 provisions in which records can be closed to the public. They include instances such as welfare cases and mental or physical health proceedings involving identifiable persons as well as individually identifiable personnel records.

Rademan Miller thinks the wording of Chapter 610 is open to interpretation and will need to be resolved through a legal or legislative process. “The courts at some point maybe have to sort it out unless the legislature decides to act and amend the law and try to clarify some provisions which they may do,” said Rademan Miller. She noted that although Amendment 1 is a constitutional amendment, it places lawmakers under a statute, the Sunshine Law, which can be revised.

Missouri’s Sunshine Law dates back to 1973 following the passage of the Freedom of Information Act in 1966 by the U.S. Congress.

Some state lawmakers are weighing in with concerns, including Republican Representative Nick Schroer of O’Fallon, who thinks some media sources could expose confidential emails because of Amendment 1.

Having the stltoday and other media outlets publish the names and identifying info of any confidential email they get their hands on will erode the representative capacity of legislators and the avenue for our voters to communicate w their officials

— Nicholas B. Schroer (@NickBSchroer) January 22, 2019

Republican Representative Jean Evans of Manchester says Amendment 1 wrote out any exemptions to public disclosure.

Actually, the exemptions were written out of the Amendment that was passed, at least according to three different attorneys from whom we have heard. Attorneys may differ, but we are being advised that the Amendment does not allow us to redact for privacy. Needs clarification. https://t.co/a1dptaeAA3

— Jean Evans ⚜️ (@MoRepEvans) January 22, 2019

Other components of Amendment 1 Clean Missouri that apply to state lawmakers include a requirement that they wait two years before becoming lobbyists. The measure also eliminates lobbyist gifts of more than $5 to lawmakers and limits campaign donations to $2,500 for Senate candidates and $2,000 to House candidates. It further bars fundraising activity in any building or property owned by the state.

The provision calling for a two-year waiting period before becoming lobbyists led to early resignations by several lawmakers before Amendment 1 went into effect in early December. Among them was Democratic Senator Jake Hummel of St. Louis. Hummel lost his primary for reelection and would have exited the legislature in January anyway. But as the Missouri AFL-CIO’s secretary-treasurer, he said he wanted to be sure he would be able to file as a lobbyist if he was called on to do so.

Missouri voters resoundingly approved Amendment 1 by a 62%-to-38% margin.

Some state lawmakers are weighing in with concerns, including Republican Representative Nick Schroer of O’Fallon, who thinks some media sources could expose confidential emails because of Amendment 1.

Missouri Democratic leaders in the legislature believe they’re taking a realistic approach to the new legislative session in Jefferson City.

Republicans hold a supermajority in both the House and Senate and have control of the governor’s seat, which means the minority party has little power to determine which laws are passed.

State Rep. Crystal Quade (D-Springfield) speaks to the Capitol Press Corps on March 15, 2018 (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

Incoming House Minority Leader Crystal Quade of Springfield is starting her second two-year term in Jefferson City. But the sophomore Representative has honed in on priorities her party can pursue.

Quade says Democrats in the House will focus on defending progressive ballot measures passed by voters, noting the new laws are already under threat.

“There’s already been lots of talk about Clean Missouri and undoing provisions of that,” says Quade. “I don’t know if folks are going to go after the minimum wage increase. And of course, we’ve seen right to work (where) there are already bills filed.”

Republican Governor Mike Parson has said he would support a repeal of the “Clean Missouri” ballot initiative, officially known as Amendment 1. The measure modified Missouri’s Constitution to ban lobbyist gifts to state lawmakers, open legislative records to the public and change the process for redrawing legislative districts.

The law could see more legal challenges for being too broadly written to encompass more than one subject and alter too many sections of the Constitution. Such claims stood up before November’s election in Cole County Circuit Court but were overturned by a higher bench on appeal, preserving its place on the ballot.

Some Republicans led by former U.S. Senator John Danforth supported Clean Missouri, but the party largely solidified against it because of the redistricting changes that members think would tilt the process in favor of Democrats. It was also opposed by black, mostly Democratic lawmakers, who believe the redistricting arrangement would rob them of the concentration of minority voters in their districts.

Senate Minority Leader Gina Walsh (D-Bellefontaine Neighbors)

Senate Democratic Minority Floor Leader Gina Walsh of Bellefontaine Neighbors supports Clean Missouri but acknowledges some members of her party are uneasy about it.

“The redistricting part, there’s a lot of concern in the black caucus about how it would be redistricted,” says Walsh.

The ballot measure to make Missouri a right to work state lost by a landslide 67%-to-32% margin in November’s election. Although Governor Parson’s office studied the idea of having a county by county ballot referendum on the measure, a Parson staffer told KSDK-TV the effort was “a research project” last month and said the governor was now focused on other statewide issues.

Still, incoming Republican State Senator Eric Burlison of Springfield filed a right to work bill for this year’s legislature.

Walsh, who’s long been heavily involved in organized labor at the state level, is baffled how voters responded to the right to work issue.

“I just don’t understand how you fail to pass right to work and beat it overwhelmingly by 67 percent, and then send the folks back that want to go back at it again,” Walsh says.

Right to work laws prohibit the practice of requiring workers to join unions as a condition of employment.

Missouri’s new minimum wage hike passed by voters in November went into effect on January 1st. Workers receiving minimum pay now make $8.60 per hour, up from $7.85 in 2018. The wage will increase 85 cents a year to reach $12.00 in 2023. The public approval of the pay boost came after the Republican-led legislature had blocked minimum wage hikes in the cities of St. Louis and Kansas City in 2017.

Representative Quade says another priority of House Democrats this year will be efforts to change the criminal justice system. She noted that there’s bipartisan support to deal with issues such as mass incarceration.

“Some of our caucus members have been working with folks on the other side, filing bills together and working on some things,” says Quade. “We do expect to see more of that.”

Quade also says the Black Caucus would be active in tackling change to the criminal justice system.  Missouri has the eighth-highest incarceration rate in the country, according to the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center.  The rate has increased by 4% since 2010, while the national incarceration rate has declined by 8%.  The state’s female prison population is the fastest growing in the nation.  Nationally, President Trump signed a sweeping criminal justice bill passed by Congress last month meant to reduce prison populations.

Moving forward in the state’s upper chamber, Minority Leader Walsh is happy to have converted a seat to the Democratic side in November’s election.

“We have three new members, Lauren Arthur (Kansas City), Senator-elect Karla May (St. Louis) and Senator-elect Brian Williams, (St. Louis)” says Walsh.  “They’re all new, and we’re no longer at nine, we’re at 10 again.”

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