WATERTOWN - The news media's level of interest in open records legislation this session is not matched by the public, Gov. Mike Rounds says.

He said his staff checked the records of who has contacted the governor's office about the issue since November.

"I haven't had one single letter, I haven't had one single phone call logged into my system of literally more than a thousand contacts," Rounds told the Watertown Public Opinion editorial board. "Not one, on the issue that you're suggesting is such a critical issue in South Dakota.

"Of all the issues that are out there that people are really following, and there are dozens of them, this is the one that is for you the most critical. But in terms of what we spend our time with dealing with folks in the public every day, this isn't on their radar screen."

Rounds said there's no way to fix SB189, introduced by Sen. Nancy Turbak Berry, D-Watertown. Her bill would put into state law all records are presumed open unless their openness could cause "irreparable harm." The legislation would open all state records unless they're specifically protected by state law.

The bill has passed the Senate and awaits House action.

Rounds said the Turbak Berry bill would open the door too wide to records - some of them likely confidential that aren't even required to be kept.

"I'm still convinced that you can do a significant amount of harm to individuals if you could freely get information and market information about the private lives of people in the state," he said.

The governor said it's often a matter of education at the local level. "Having a law on the books that says everything is open unless it's closed is not going to take care of prejudices that we have anyplace," he said.

Rounds said more state information, forms and records are available online than ever before.