Our Views for June 30, 2008

• Advocate Opinion page staff
• Published: Jun 30, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Before it adjourned last week, the Louisiana Legislature approved public records legislation that, while not perfect, should help throw some more sunshine on the public’s business. 

Louisiana’s Public Records Law grants the public access to a broad variety of government documents, but there’s an exception for records in the Governor’s Office. Although the exception is ambiguous, one interpretation of the law could have put a virtual seal on documents generated in the governor’s executive office and more than 60 agencies, boards and commissions under the governor’s direct control. 

State Rep. Wayne Waddell, R-Shreveport, offered a bill to dramatically scale back that exemption and offer the public more access, but it died in the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee. An administration-backed bill by state Sen. Mike Walsworth, R-West Monroe, also went nowhere.

To its credit, the Jindal administration crafted some alternative legislation that clarifies existing language and advances public access to the records generated by the many agencies under the governor’s direct control. The Legislature approved that legislation and sent it to the governor.

The compromise doesn’t go as far as we would have liked, but it’s better than the status quo.

Ethical government and transparent government go hand in hand. After all, having access to the documents and deliberation of government officials is the best way to help ensure they are making decisions in the public interest. Such scrutiny can be a healthy deterrent to corruption.

In general, however, good-government groups were not particularly vocal about bills dealing with access to records of the Governor’s Office during the recently concluded legislative session.

To its credit, the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana issued a position paper calling for an end to the broad exemption from public records laws now in place for the Governor’s Office.

And, the League of Women Voters of Louisiana testified before legislative committees in favor of openness for Governor’s Office records.

But speaking before the Press Club of Baton Rouge, Council for A Better Louisiana President Barry Erwin conceded CABL had not followed the legislation on transparency for Governor’s Office records as closely as it could have.

LA Ethics 1, a coalition of business and civic groups aimed at ethics reform, didn’t count this issue as a priority in the session, either.

“Prior to the regular session, the LA Ethics 1 coalition partners voted on the items that they wanted to include in that session’s agenda,” said Baton Rouge Area Chamber President Adam Knapp, whose group is a member of the coalition. “The issue of gubernatorial transparency was not raised amongst the partners. With that being the case, I cannot speak for LA Ethics 1. However, in terms of BRAC, we have not considered it simply because it is not a perceptional concern of potential economic development prospects.”

 The more transparent our government, the more attractive we become to outside investment. That is why government watchdog groups, as well as the general public, should fight for access to public records, including those in the Governor’s Office.