Rep. Gary Simrill, R-Rock Hill, said he had meant to introduce a bill that would keep sensitive financial information from being posted on government Web sites.

That's not what he did.

"I made a mistake," Simrill said.

Bill No. 3570 would have put off-limits information about disciplinary actions taken against public employees and would have required written requests for meeting minutes, police incident reports and inmates housed in jails or prisons.

Those records can now be accessed immediately through a spoken request.

"I certainly didn't ask for that," Simrill said. "I don't want to take anything away. I've been one of the biggest FOI supporters out there."

Simrill said he accidentally submitted a request received last year from the S.C. Sheriffs' Association.

Others listed as sponsors of the inadvertant bill include Reps. Ralph Norman, R-Rock Hill; Bessie Moody-Lawrence, D-Rock Hill; and Herb Kirsh, D-Clover.

Kirsh said he has not signed off on or seen the mistaken bill.

"I think freedom of information is good, as far as I'm concerned," Kirsh said. "If it (a bill) is going to hold anything back, I'm not going to sign off on it."

Simrill said he never considered the request from the sheriff's association because he did not agree with it.

He already has asked the House Judiciary Committee to table the bill that would have changed the freedom of information laws.

Public-records bill to be filed

A new bill will be introduced Tuesday that would require personal financial information to be deleted from public records that are accessed electronically, Simrill said.

Social Security numbers of some York County residents had been available on the Internet through an agreement between the county and a New York company that posts images of public documents online. After an inquiry from The Herald, county Clerk of Court David Hamilton asked the company to immediately pull the documents in December, which included land and divorce records. Simrill said this led him to have the bill drafted that will be introduced next week.

The availability of disciplinary records for government agency employees has been an issue in York County in recent years.

In December, through a Freedom of Information Act request, The Herald received a report from the Rock Hill Police Department concerning an internal investigation into the actions of a police officer who used a Taser against a 75-year-old woman.

In April, the state Court of Appeals ruled that the York County Sheriff's Office must release disciplinary records to the media from a 4-year-old case of improper conduct involving four deputies after a lawsuit was brought by The Herald.

Jason Cato • 329-4071