Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain

That famous line from the Wizard of Oz rushed into my consciousness when I considered the responses of our local legislators to the firestorm they created by voting for the bill to exclude them from the public records act.
Their responses fell into two general categories. First, it is too difficult. And second, that they were concerned about private matters they often discuss with their constituents.
For purposes of this editorial we’ll ignore their comment that they were really trying to increase transparency. I am getting tired of politicians who make claims about legislation that are clearly farcical. I wish they would show more respect for their constituents.
Yes, being a legislator is difficult. They ran for the job. If it’s too difficult they should go find a job that better suits their temperament. Insuring all of their constituent’s interests are represented and not just the interests of some “special group” like campaign contributors is critical to our system of representative government.
The second excuse is much more troubling to me. This is where the real problem with our government begins. Our elected representatives work for all of us. They don’t work for any single constituent and no individual constituent should expect special treatment.
We claim our government is of the people, by the people and for the people. But when our elected representatives claim any of their communications need to be held behind a curtain of secrecy that is where the mischief begins.
Individual citizens, corporations and organizations that are petitioning their elected representatives should not have any expectation that their appeals will not be disclosed.
When our representatives can keep their discussions secret that opens the door to backroom deals, bribes and other nefarious activity.
This legislative session gives us a perfect example of this problem. SB6199 was passed by the legislature despite all of the Republicans refusing to vote on the bill. When they attempted to debate the bill on the floor they were gaveled down by Speaker Pro-Tem Rep. John Lovick, D–Mill Creek. Lovick said the Republicans were impugning the motives of their colleagues. Ultimately, all of the Republicans in the House refused to vote on the bill and were recorded in the roll call as “absent” (You can find the complete news story under state news on our web site).
The Republicans were attempting to argue that this bill was nothing more than a payback for union support of Democrat candidates. Wouldn’t you like to know what the representatives who supported the bill promised the union?
In recent years there has been increasing pressure to make union negotiations open to the public. Several cities have passed ordinances requiring union negotiations to be open, but the state still insists they must be held in secret.
Bills like SB6199 are nothing more than an attempt by legislators to require all state employees to join a union despite numerous court decisions that have ruled no one can be compelled to join a union.
We need more transparency in government not less. In the case of the legislative attempts to exempt themselves from the open meetings act we are fortunate that the governor vetoed the measure. The problem is too many of our current representatives voted for this bill. They could easily have overridden the governor’s veto had it not been for the firestorm of negative publicity from the state media.
When our elected representatives exempt themselves from the laws they make for the rest of us our representative democracy has begun to fail. It is already too prevalent on the national level. We need to make sure it doesn’t happen on the state level.