The Index-Journal from Greenwood, South Carolina • Page 13

SECOND FRONT Thursday August 17, 1978 Page 13 The Index-Journal Greenwood, S.C. Local officials say Freedom of Information law a success in a "readable form." However, he added that even that might not get the word across. "You've got to want to read it (the law) to understand it," he said. The newly passed law says at the outset, "The General Assembly finds that it is vital in a democratic society that public business be performed in an open and public manner so that citizens shall be advised of the performance of public officials and of public policy. "Toward this end, this act is adopted, making it possible for citizens, or their representatives, to learn and report fully the activities of their public officials." The new law, moreso than the 1972 act, defines more explicite-ly what information is open to public inspection and what is not.

That which the public is allowed access to includes: Names, sex, race, title and dates of employment of all employees of public agencies; Administrative manuals and staff instructions affecting a member of the public; Final opinions and orders made in the adjudication of cases; Written planning policies, goals and final planning decisions of a public agency; -information contained in any financial account, voucher or contract of a public agency, And the minutes of all public agency meetings conducted in an open session. A public agency, by the way, is generally defined in the act as any organization supported "in whole or in part by public funds." Information that can be withheld from the public includes: Trade secrets; Information of a "personal nature where the public disclosure would constitute unreasonable invasion of personal privacy;" Law enforcement records compiled in criminal investigations, such as names of informants, premature release of information in an on-going investigation, investigatory techniques or any information that could "endanger the life, health or property of any person;" Documents concerning proposed contractural arrangements or sale or purchase of property; Salaries of employees below the level of department head, provided the public agency has a salary schedule available for examination; And legal correspondence that could come under the protection granted an attorney-client relationship. A public agency also is given the right to sort out exempt from nonexempt materials not specifically mentioned above when the agency "concludes that the public interest is best served by not disclosing them." The S.C. Press Association and several other state press organizations lobbied heavily against this clause since it could potentially allow any information to be concealed from public view. The clause was not part of the House version of the bill.

It was By DUNCAN MANSFIELD Staff Writer Nearly one month ago Gov. James B. Edwards signed into law a rewriten version of the state's 1972 Freedom of Information Act, a diluted package which in its original form would have given South Carolina one of the toughest open-government laws in the country. The list of changes the Senate deleted from the bill as first introduced in 1977 in the House, which unanimously passed the entire proposal, is long. Yet area lawmakers maintained in recent interviews that passing the heavily amended document, even with the few provisions that withstood legislative debate, was a success.

Legislators interviewed locally included Reps. Thomas Hughston, Jennings McAbee, Marion Carnell, Michael Gulledge and Sen. John Drummond. More than one legislator said he voted for the law's compromised version because the new act was "belter than what we had." They said that, generally, neither the public nor local government officials understand tjie full implications of a Freedom of Information law an issue long fought for by state groups and some lawyer-legislators. Greenwood County Council Chairman Fred Alewine agreed in the need to dissirriinate the contents of the new law to the public Labor chief to rule on cotton dust standards later added by the Senate with the condition that an agency board must have a three-fourths majority in a public vote to keep information secret.

Sen. Heyward E. McDonald, D-Richland, the bill's Senate floor manager, tried during Senate subcommittee meetings to have the provision require a unanimous vote to withhold information. Sen. C.

Anthony Harris, D-Chesterfield, also a member of the subcommittee, said that even with the provision as it now stands, the three-fourths majority represents a "substantial vote." Harris, who was primarily responsible for retaining the public record section in the bill, said the reason for the clause was to "have a little elasticity in the law" because it would apply to "a myriad of governmental entities" with varying needs and functions. 1 The Chesterfield senator defended his action saying it would be "awful arrogant" to think lawmakers could "spell out specifically" all conditions for public disclosure and agency retention of documents. In a preliminary summary of the act prepared by the House Judiciary. Committee, Staff Counsel M. Elizabeth Crum writes, "The Freedom of Information Act, with the passage of R.

739 (the new law), has been strengthened in South Carolina and the public has easier access to state government information." Ms. Crum notes that the new law provides that "any person has a right to inspect or copy (with exceptions) any public record," and that public agencies must adopt "reasonable rules concerning time and place of access to records and the cost of copying The new law, unlike the 1972 act, also stipulates that public agencies give written notice of their regularly scheduled meetings at the beginning of the calender year and inform the public at least 24 hours in advance that they are having a "called, special or re-scheduled meeting." In reviewing this section, however, The Index-Journal questioned a qualifying provision that says the public needn't be notified of an "emergency meeting" of a public body. The law contains no definition for emergency meetings. Despite a somewhat nebulous distinction between emergency and special meetings, Sen. Harris said "the question never came up" during the subcommittee review.

He said lawmakers were generally of the opinion that an emergency meeting is any crisis session called on an hour's-notice for action such as "imposing martial law." Again, such a meeting under the law would be closed to the public. While the law states that public agencies should not make a practice of holding closed-door meetings, it allows for such sessions A closed meeting can be called for discussion of the following subjects: Employment, appointment, compensation, promotion, demotion, discipline or release of an employee, except in a grievance procedure in which an employee "can demand the hearing be conducted Contractural negotiations and proposed sale or purchase of property, legal advice and settlement of claims; Discussion pertaining to security personnel or devices; And investigative proceedings concerning charges of criminal misconduct. Generally lawmakers agreed these topics merited closed-meeting discussion, although there were some dissenters. Rep. Gulledge, who called for the bill to be brought out of the House Judiciary Committee and onto the House floor for debate, said he believes in the need for closed sessions when considering firing, but not in hiring public employees.

The Abbeville representative said that he could "go along with closed meetings when you're talking about personalities" when alleged misconduct is involved. But, he said, the doors should be open when candidates for public service jobs are being screened and their qualifications discussed. It is this need to know the give-and-take in meetings, now allowed to be closed, that S.C, Press Association officials believe is an integral public right. A subsection of the new Freedom of Information law allows public bodies to go into closed session after an affirmative vote of three-fourths of its members to discuss business for "some exceptional reason so compelling as to override the general public nnlinv in favnr nf nnhlit mootinae By DANNY MCNEILL State Editor COLUMBIA The decision on cotton dust standards for the South Carolina textile industry is now in the hands of Labor Commissioner Ed McGowan. At the end of a day of testimony by textile manufacturers and members of the Carolina Brown Lung Association (CBL), McGowan promised a decision on dust standards "in a few days or a few weeks." He said the state can adopt the standards proposed by the U.S.

Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), adopt modified standards or do nothing. If the state does nothing or adopts standards which are less stringent than those proposed by OSHA, the federal administration would probably challenge the state, McGowan said. New OSHA standards scheduled to go into ef- feet Sept. 4 are stricterthan South Carolina's standards. The proposed standards, have drawn fire from both the manufacturers and the' Carolina Brown Lung Association.

F. Magarahan, S.C. Textile Manufacturers Association president, said standards will pose an economic hardship on the state's largest industry. Robert Thompson, an attorney who represents the textile association, said a stay of the OSHA standards was being requested in federal court. The stay is expected to be sought from the U.S.

Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals at Va. CBL members said the proposed standards are not strong enough to eliminate the disease which has wrecked the lives of many of its members. They said textile workers would be better off seeking employment in other fields if the causes of byssinosis (brown lung) are not removed from textile plants. The standards proposed by OSHA would permit .2 grams of dust per cubic centimeter of air in the opening and carding areas and .75 grams in the weaving areas of textile plants. Standards if JJ xY7 1 Getting answers S.C.

Commissioner of Labor Ed McGowan, center, questions Dr. William Pryor of Greenville about the connection between smoking and brown lung during a day-long hearing in Columbia Wednesday. McGowan promised a decision on cotton dust standards for the state "in a few days or a few Stricter federal OSHA standards become effective on Labor Day unless stayed by a federal court. (Staff photo) fW.J 111 IHIVt JUVUV UlVVIIllJ. The provision is a carry-over from the 1972 act, which was originally deleted by the House.

When the Senate reinserted the provision it added the three-fourths vote stipulation and exempted any budgetary discussions from items eligible for closed- lows the manufacturers to comply is too Colie Lynch, Columbia CBL chapter president, said the manufacturers cannot be trusted to clean up themselves. "On the job, I was given advance warning of coming inspections and was required to keep people to cleanup," he said. "It is not fair for the companies to conduct their own monitoring and medical surveillance." "We are only asking for a fair deal from you, Commissioner McGowan. If we can't get help from you, we are going back to federal OSHA," Lynch said. "The manufacturers have admitted the dust is the problem.

What are they going to do about it?" He estimated 15,000 to 25,000 people in South Carolina have brown lung and the number is growing. 'The other side presented a lot of people with fancy degrees this morning. We have no degrees. What we have is years of experience in the mills," Lynch said. Melvin Turner of Warrenville told of blowing down (the protess of using air pressure to blow accumulated cotton particles from beams and machinery) in the card room when the dust was so thick you couldn't see 150 feet.

"The masks came in too late for me. The mills never did anything for me. The government will have to force mills to take action. They need to clean up the mills, not just give everyone a mask," he said. "I want the mills cleaned up for my children who are now working there," he said.

Saying he was playing the devil's advocate, McGowan asked CBL members if they wanted regulations that would close down the mills. "They said they would have to close when laws were proposed to do away with child labor and they threatened to close when the mills began to unionize," said Mrs. Norton. "They have survived and they're making money. They won't close." McGowan said this situation may be a little different.

"Just across the Rio Grande there are no cotton dust standards and labor is cheap. My job is to help the people whether those people be management or the worker," he said. Many South Carolina textile firms have operations in other countries and the OSHA requla-. tions make a situation that has the potential for making some S.C. textile companies move their operations abroad, McGowan said.

He said too little has been spent on brown lung research and ways to eliminate the disease and pledged to work with the CBL on the problem. However, he said there must be mutual understanding, adding the tact used by CBL in the past will not work. "You carry a man's patience pretty far," he told Mrs. Norton at one point. Alex Kuzma, executive director of the S.C.

Public Interest Research Group based at Furman University, said the group has conducted its own eight-month study of the textile industry and was pleased with the stricter standards proposed by OSHA, The group thinks the monitoring and warnings on occupational hazards should not be left to the manufacturers. "They have shown gross insen-sitivity to the problems," Kuzma said. He said the industry has made a "real effort to keep workers uninformed and standards low." He suggested McGowan use volunteer VISTA workers to hold clinics to educate to the hazards of textile work. McGowan appeared receptive to the idea and said he would look into No matter what the state Department of Labor does about cotton dust standards, McGowan said he expects to be blamed for the closing of some textile that may have been closed simply because they couldn't make money, he said. Wednesday CBL released a May 18 lettei from an OSHA official that said the S.C.

Department of Labor had been lax in enforcing the present cotton dust standards. The letter warned the federal government might have to take over the occupational safety and health program from the state. Bill Fields, a labor department spokesman, presented the agency's response to the letter. In it, the labor department noted it had inspected 75 percent of the plants in the state using cotton. In 89 percent of these inspections, citations were issued.

Fields said the department had heard nothing more from OSHA about the matter. I door debate. According to Dr. Reid H. Montgomery, SCPA secretary-manager, South Carolina and only one or two other states in the country allow discretionary powers to public bodies to close what are known in the law as "administrative briefings" of public agency board members and staff.

"The closed administrative briefings feature is so threatening to the essence of public participation, in governmental decisionmaking that is raises grave concerns," wrote SCPA President Don McKeown, to the members of the Senate as they deliberated over the provision. "It is just that type of provision in the present law which has been exploited to mask important but controversial matters from the public." Sen. Harris noted that even with the clause public bodies cannot take action on matters discussed behind closed doors without taking a vote in public. County council chairman Alewine said, "You as the public are entitled to know what your public servants are doing." But he said, there are some matters that "can't be handled" in public, which, if they were, might "harm someone unneccessarily." As an elected official, Alewine maintained "I don't need to not the material that causes brown lung. He said systems are not very efficient at removing the small, respirable dust particles that contain the causitive agent.

OSHA standards allow only half the dust found in the -air in the Piedmont area, Hatcher said. He and others think the first priority is to determine the exact cause of brown lung and then eliminate it. "The standards will not control byssinosis in the opening and carding areas and they are not needed in the other areas of textile Dr. Hatcher said the dust in the weave room and other areas is not the type that causes brown lung. Hatcher said not enough money and energy are being devoted to brown lung research.

Until the cause is pinpointed, he said a program of medical monitoring of textile employees and reassignment of brown lung reactors is about the only thing that can produce results. Dr. William Pryor of Greenville said the key is medical surveillance and the removal of reactors from the opening and carding operations. He said smokers seem to have more problems with byssinosis than non-smokers. He recommended a program of (1) medical surveillance, (2) reasonable dust levels, (3) research to find the cause.

He said the number of textile workers who react to cotton dust is small. In some cases when a worker in the opening or carding areas is diagnosed a reactor, the worker refuses to change jobs. Drr James Bostic of Greenville-based Riegel -Textile Corp. pointed out inconsistencies in the proposed standards. He said employers are required to begin warning workers of high dust areas on Dec.

months before the regulations require manufacturers to begin monitoring the air. "How can you 'warn someone the air does not meet the standards if you haven't tested it," he asked. He said the manufacturers are required to do their own monitoring and the record-keeping will be time-consuming and expensive. He said OSHA requires that hiost records be kept for 20 years and has no idea where the "magic 20-year figure came from." Calling the standards a gross overreaction to a small problem, Dr. Bostic said they will cause some of the smaller textile firms to fold.

He said these firms employ a high percentage of women and minorities and they will be hurt. Regulations require the manufacturers to distribute information supplied by OSHA. Drv give OSHA a propaganda license. "Workers do not want to wear respirators (masks) as some (workers) would have to do in certain areas and the standards would create low worker-morale in this case," he said. James G.

Crawley Jr. of Spartanburg said the firm he established to reprocess textile waste has already lost one account because of the regulations. He said some industries such as furniture manufacture which deal with a small amount of cotton product and therefore must meet the OSHA standards will immediately drop cotton in favor of synthethics. "A study conducted on our operation which uses textile waste and cotton by-products concluded the brown lung causitive agent does not exist in our plant but I have to meet the standards," Crawley said. "Ours is a small operation but I have already spent over $250,000 to meet air standards." L.K.

Fitzgerald, a retired Milliken said he is aware of dust-related technology worldwide and knows some textile mills in South Carolina can't meet the standards through use of "any technology on the face of the earth." "OSHA doesn't know how to do it, the industry doesn't know how to do it. But OSHA says do it," he said. He said OSHA commissioned a "beautiful" study of the economic impact of the proposed standards and then "totally ignored the results of their own study." He said the impact of the regulations will be felt nationally in higher textile prices but the real impact will be in textile manufacturing areas such as South Carolina. None of this testimony impressed CBL members. They said the industry has known of the problem for nearly 40 years and has made little progress towards its elimination.

Mrs. Beatrice Norton, Spartanburg CBL chapter president, criticized the labor commissioner for lack of leadership in combatting brown lung. She said the association asked McGowan three years ago to require signs warning of the dangers of brown lung in textile plants. She said McGowan had done nothing. There is some good in the proposed OSHA standards, she said but they don't go far enough.

She said CBL has been told by engineers dust levels in mills can be lowered to .1 grams per cubic centimeter. "The mills can cleanup much faster than (hey are doing," she said. "The four yefrs OSHAl- now permit one gram per cubic CBL officials say dust levels as low as .1 are technically achievable and the standard should be set at this level throughout the mills. Magarahan said the cause of brown lung is not known and the federal government should undertake a massive research program to determine the cause. He called the proposed OSHA standards "overkill." He said they were drawn up by.

a doctor in the midwest who "for all I know knows nothing about South Carolina textiles." Throughout the day-long hearing people testifying presented contridictary figures on the number of textile workers who could be classed as byssinosis reactors. Industry claims about one percent of the 400,000 people employed in S.C. textile plants are potential reactors. CBL officials maintain the figure should be 10 percent. Magarahan said OSHA standards could be financially disasterous for the industry and the threat of the standards plus unfavorable import textile situation has already led to the closing of one or more plants.

Questioned by McGowan, Magarahan said the industry acknowledges the exietanie of bys sinosis and admits something needs to be done. However, he did not present proposals for eliminating the problem. Thompson called the standards outrageous saying they "refuse to take into account the realities of the work place and present technology." He said the standards are abusive and the industry cannot live with He urged McGowan to do what he could to deal realistically, with the situation. He said at least a dozen suits -have already challenged the proposed standards and a company he represents is suing "as a matter of survival." He and others said the technology is not available to meet the standards and if it were available, the price tag would be too high. In addition seeking court stay of the standards, Thompson promised to move against state standards in state courts if necessary.

Dr. John Hatcher, a members of the textile department at Clemson University who has conducted extensive research oh the causes of brown lung, said engineering attempts to eliminate dust remove primarily dust particles that can be gpen with the naked eye and this is come to you (the public) every time I make a decision" since election to office inherently indicates a certain public support of his views. When the House passed its version of the new act. it included a section that would mandate the removal from office of any public servant found violating the act. This was dropped by the Senate because the lawmakers thought the penality was too stringent.

The Senate also cut a provision that would have allowed the state Attorney General to give advice where the application of the law was in question, Sen. Harris said this section was deleted because it could put the attorney general's office in a position of being public prosecutor and judge simultaneously, and could allow "any crack pot" to sue an agency using free legal counsel from the attorney general's office. As the law stands, injunctive relief is provided, and a fine or imprisonment for the misdemeanor offense is included. The new law also allows recovery of attorney fees if a challenger wins in a court case. Whether or not further tightening on the law will come next year is speculative.

While local House members said they would support such action, early backers, such as Sen. McDonald, have yet to caucuss. McDonald said he "would be surprised" if a stricter version of the law were introduced in the 179 legislative session. 4 Bostic said industry thinks this provision will 1.