By Gordon Garnos
AT ISSUE: It has been said that South Dakota has some of the worst laws in the nation when it comes to open meetings and open records of government. While this may be true, at least Attorney General Larry Long is attempting to improve both of them. We give him a lot of credit in his attempts, but until the South Dakota Legislature is willing, our state may remain as one of the worst states in the nation for not having adequate open meeting and open records laws. (Full Article)
2 comments:
Gordon:
Thank you for a very fine article and analysis. Open government, as you show, is not a partisan issue. It is something that benefits all South Dakotans, whatever their party affiliation.
Todd Epp
SD Watch
http://thunewatch.squarespace.com
I agree with what Gordon wrote here in principle, but with some reservations. I believe open access to government records and open meetings are a good thing and are essential to good democracy.
However, I also believe there has been an effort on the part of the "mainstream" media in recent years simply to harass a state Republican administration and a Republican majority in the legislature. For instance, the much lauded gov't employee salaries was already available upon request; the Argus Leader simply wanted another tool to harass the Rounds administration (and as my columns over the last year illustrate, I'm not the #1 fan of the Rounds' administration). Also, I believe their lust for the list of people who went pheasant hunting with Rounds was another attempt at harassment. And finally, the angst over closed caucus meetings several months ago was overblown; people of a like political belief ought to be able to work together and strategize in private, while the legislative debate and votes should be open to the public.
So while I believe in "open government," I believe the principle of open government has been used repeatedly by the media, not for lofty democratic reasons on behalf of an information-hungry public, but to harass government officials with whom the "mainstream" media has ideological differences.
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