Political Horizons for May 10, 2009

• By MARK BALLARD
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: May 10, 2009 - Page: 7B

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Overshadowing much of the debate during the first two weeks of the Louisiana Legislature’s regular session is the question of whether the governor’s office should have to follow the same rules as other elected officials and publicly disclose its records.

Gov. Bobby Jindal, who campaigned on transparency, says no.

Why keep public records secret?

“It protects the public from being confused. If you get exposed to a lot of premature ideas and thoughts, you know, they’re going to be confused,” said state Sen. Jody Amedee.

Amedee, a Democrat from Gonzales, is sponsor of the administration’s Senate Bill 278, which passed out of a committee last week and goes to the full Senate this week. SB278 would bar from disclosure documents and records related to the “deliberative process,” including internal and external communications of the governor’s staff.

“It’s so blatantly bad,” said state Sen. Robert Adley, a Benton Republican who offered  legislation that would remove a governor’s exclusion from state public-records laws. His bill was opposed by Jindal — and defeated.

“He’s making horrible arguments and the Legislature, because of all the lobbying he’s doing, is swallowing the whole thing,” Adley said. “Transparency is gone. Checks and balances are gone. I’m beginning to believe I’m sitting in a communist state.”

At the heart of the debate is what is called the “deliberative process” or how a government executive comes to a decision. All decisions are based on a series of influences, data, advice and choices.

Jindal’s executive counsel, Jimmy Faircloth, argues that making public the governor’s records would keep staffers from offering unfettered advice to their patron for fear of questions about the options considered but not chosen. “If I have to defend those nine bad ideas, I might not offer them at all,” Faircloth said.

State Sen. Lydia Jackson, D-Shreveport, counters that unlike private businessmen, government officials make decisions on behalf of a public whose money they are using and whose constitutional authority to oversee those decisions is absolute.

“I think the public is sophisticated enough to understand that this is a process,” said Jackson, adding that the way Jindal defines “deliberative process” is vague and would end up cloaking more records.

But what does “deliberative process” mean?

Faircloth read from an Illinois statute as an example of acceptable wording.