An comprehensive rewrite to the state’s open meetings and records laws has passed the Legislature after more than a year of negotiations between local government officials and lawyers for media and public access groups.

The state House of Representatives voted 169-1 to agree with the Senate version of the bill. It will now go to the governor’s desk for his signature.

The bill was conceived and ushered through the legislative process by state Attorney General Sam Olens. Its sponsor was Rep. Jay Powell, R-Camilla, who is a former mayor.

The Senate Judiciary Committee made changes last week to the bill that include restricting public access to records pertaining to large-scale state economic development projects, allowing the Board of Regents to vote on university presidential candidates within five days of announcingthem rather than 14 days and to require a finding of negligence by government officials or agencies that violate the open government laws in order for civil penalties to be imposed.

Powell told the chamber that Olens and the governor have made a commitment not to later have the economic development exception applicable for local development authorities.

Olens has said the bill seeks to clarify the state’s patchwork laws governing public access to meetings and records as well as to codify case law on the issues.

The bill also raises penalties from $100 for a violation of the Open Records Act and $500 for a violation of the Open Meetings Act to $1,000 for a violation of either act and $2,500 for any subsequent violation within a year’s time.

House Speaker David Ralston announced today that Gov. Nathan Deal has tapped Rep. Roger B. Lane, R-Darien, to the Glynn County Superior Court bench.

Lane will step down from the House following this session, which ends today. He is chairman of the Reapportionment Committee and a member of the Judiciary Committee.

“I know there has been some controversy in that circuit, but I’m looking forward to it,” Lane said, addressing the House chamber this afternoon.

Lane will replace Judge Amanda F. Williams, who resigned after the Judicial Qualifications Committee launched an investigation into allegations of misconduct.

Lane, who is also a sole practitioner, was among three candidates suggested by Deal’s Judicial Nominating Commission. The other two were Michael G. Frick, a partner at Hall Booth Smith & Slover, and Robert W. “Bert” Guy Jr., a partner at Stein & Guy.

“I will be back–maybe to make sure the Judiciary Committee is treating our judges fairly now that I’ll be there will them,” Lane said.

State lawmakers have approved legislation that would specifically outlaw foreclosure fraud in Georgia.

The House of Representatives voted 162-3 to agree with the Senate’s version of House Bill 237.

The legislation was introduced last year but stalled. State Attorney General Sam Olens renewed his office’s push for the legislation earlier this year after announcing a $25 billion settlement between 49 attorneys general and the nation’s five largest mortgage lenders.

The original version of HB 237 allowed district attorneys and the state attorney general to have subpoena power in mortgage and foreclosure fraud investigations, but that provision was opposed by defense attorneys and was removed by the Senate.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Rich Golick, R-Smyrna, said that issue may be revisited later.

While state lawmakers have yet to take up controversial legislation aimed at picketing and abortion, the Georgia House of Representatives have approved sweeping reforms of the criminal justice system and the creation of a special tax tribunal.

The House voted 162-0 to approve HB 1176, a measure backed by a joint committee of lawmakers, a tri-branch special council on criminal justice reform and the governor.

The House also voted 165-0 on HB 100, which establishes a special tribunal within the Georgia Office of State Administrative Hearings that would settle tax disputes with the state Department of Revenue.

Representatives also are expected to vote this afternoon on HB 397, a bill backed by state Attorney General Sam Olens that would revise and rewrite the state’s open meetings and records laws.

The sponsor of legislation originating in the Senate that would protect guarantors of large development loans from collection efforts said his bill likely won’t pass this session.

“It’s on life support,” said Senate Rules Committee Chairman Don Balfour, R-Snellville. Despite passing the Senate and the House Banks and Banking Committee, the bill stalled in the House Rules Committee after loud protest from creditor’s rights attorneys and banks.

The Georgia General Assembly began its last legislative day of the 2012 session this morning with a number of bills of legal interest nearly settled.

Already, both chambers have approved versions of a bill overhauling the state’s open meetings and records laws and another enacting significant reforms to the criminal justice system. The House must vote today to agree to tweaks made in the Senate to House Bill 397, backed by Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, and 1176, pushed by Gov. Nathan Deal. Officials have indicated there shouldn’t be any dissent that would hold up either.

There also has been agreement on the $39.5 billion fiscal year 2013 budget, which includes $10 million for the creation of new accountability courts and increased funding for several agencies of the judiciary.

Bills revising the state’s 40-year-old juvenile code and dedicating funding for indigent defense already have been pronounced dead.

Still, a few items affecting the state’s legal community may arise, including one that has pitted creditor’s rights lawyers against attorneys for developers who are fighting collection suits.

Senate Bill 448 would protect guarantors of large development loans from collection efforts by entities who have purchased their original loans on the secondary market. House Banks and Banking Committee members approved the bill last week with changes that limited the scope of the bill to apply only to seconday loan holders that purchase debt from a federal bank regulatory agency.

An omnibus criminal justice overhaul that sprung from a special council of judges, lawyers and legislators passed the Georgia Senate this afternoon in a 51-0 vote.

The Senate also approved seven amendments to House Bill 1176. Among the changes were those addressing state court systems’ concerns that raising felony thresholds would send a flood of misdemeanor cases their way and reducing degrees of burglary from three to two, according to the bill’s co-sponsor, Sen. Bill Hamrick, R-Carrollton.

Last year, Gov. Nathan Deal pushed for legislation impaneling a 13-member, tri-branch special council to study the state’s courts and corrections system and recommend ways to reduce recidivism and the state’s cost of incarceration. The Governor’s Office estimated the state pays about $1 billion annually to maintain one of the nation’s highest incarceration rates and expects HB 1176 will yield $264 million in savings over the next five years by reducing the number of low-level, nonviolent offenders in prison.

Among the bill’s major changes to Georgia’s criminal justice system are creating a statewide system of drug and mental health court programs, implementing a weight-based system for prosecuting drug crimes that includes lesser sentences for lesser amounts, raising the felony threshold for certain property crimes such as forgery, theft and shoplifting. The bill also incorporates language from previous legislation, including restricting public access to people’s arrest records if they were not prosecuted or convicted and increasing the categories of people who must report suspected child abuse to authorities.

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It came down to the wire, but a comprehensive overhaul of the state’s open government laws unanimously passed the Senate today.

House Bill 397, which was pushed by Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, must now go back to the House so members can agree on changes made by the Senate.

Its sponsor, Rep. Jay Powell, R-Camilla, said he’s likely to support the version which was tweaked and approved last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“It’s been a week. So, I’ve got to take a look at the changes made in the Senate, but I think I’m good with all them,” Powell said today.

Olens, who is back in Atlanta after being in Washington to attend Supreme Court hearings on the challenge to President Obama’s healthcare law, said the Senate version of HB 397 “makes great strides towards increasing transparency in Georgia.” Read more »

Assistant Georgia Attorney General DeBrae C. Kennedy announced this morning at a Georgia Public Defender Standards Council meeting that she will leave the state Law Department after March 30.

Kennedy, who recently worked on a settlement between the council and indigent defense advocates over the assignment of conflict attorneys in appellate cases, did not elaborate on her decision other than to say she had been on sick leave recently.

She did not say what her future plans are.

A bill expressly criminalizing foreclosure fraud in Georgia—a measure backed by the state attorney general—cleared the Senate Wednesday afternoon.

Current law recognizes mortgage fraud but does not specifically include penalties for fraud committed during the foreclosure process.

House Bill 237 was filed last year. It passed the House in a 168-1 vote but was caught up in the Senate and did not receive a vote by the full chamber by the end of the session last April.

Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens renewed his push for the bill in February after announcing a $25 billion settlement between 49 state attorneys general and the nation’s top five mortgage lenders. After some edits to HB 237, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill last month.

“Georgia’s current mortgage fraud statute is insufficient and must be revised to criminalize fraud throughout the entire lending process, including foreclosures,” Olens said in a written statement.

“I applaud the members of the Senate for recognizing that Georgia urgently needs a law protecting borrowers during every stage of the lending process,” he added.

Georgia’s judicial branch saw some but not all of its wishes granted in the 2013 budget bill passed by the state House of Representatives on Wednesday.

Most notably, House Bill 742—which was transferred to the Senate for its consideration—retains Gov. Nathan Deal’s recommendations to increase funding for accountability courts and shifting budgeting oversight from the judicial to the executive branch.

HB 742, which passed the House 151-21, adds $10 million to establish a grant program for new and existing accountability courts. It also transfers $1.6 million from the Judicial Council—a judicial branch agency—to the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council’s budget, an executive branch agency, for accountability courts.

Of the $11.6 allotment, roughly $9.4 million would go to felony accountability courts, such as drug and mental health court programs. Another $1.5 million would go to DUI, family and juvenile court programs, and the remaining $750,000 would go to a collaborativen pilot project with the Department of Corrections.

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