Freedom of information is the key to accountability
One of the silliest things I’ve heard people say since the Lexington airport scandal began is that it’s a good thing the city didn’t take over the water company. After all, they say, business can always do a better job of running things than government can.
Apparently they haven’t been paying attention lately.
The mismanagement and malfeasance at Blue Grass Airport pale in comparison to the mess we’ve seen across corporate America. Most recently, some of our biggest banks and corporations have been running to the government seeking hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts.
Many jobs are done best by private enterprise, but some should be left to government. Both can succeed, and neither has a monopoly on inefficiency, mismanagement, short-sighted leadership, greed or dishonesty.
The real issue is that both government and business must be held accountable for their actions where the public interest is concerned. That’s why we must return to sensible government regulation of business and the markets, and more transparency and accountability in government.
President Barack Obama set the right tone with several executive orders Wednesday, his first full day in office. He ordered stricter ethical standards for administration officials to try to curb the pay-to-play system that has corrupted Washington. And, more important, he reversed Bush administration policies that favored government secrecy.
Obama said that when citizens request information about government activities under the federal Freedom of Information Act, it should be released unless there’s a good reason to keep it secret. That’s the way it was before the Bush administration effectively reversed the rule to favor a presumption of secrecy.
President George Bush’s excuse was that terrorists might gain access to sensitive information. There was never any evidence of that, but excessive secrecy helped hide his administration’s waste, mismanagement and abuse of power. Some of it came to light anyway, and who knows how much more we’ll find out about now that the veil has been lifted.
Obama called the Freedom of Information Act “perhaps the most powerful instrument we have for making our government accountable and also transparent.” He’s right about that. The old saying is true: Sunlight is a powerful disinfectant.
Believe it or not, Kentucky is a national leader in freedom of information and government accountability. Under laws dating back to the 1960s, government meetings in Kentucky are open to the public, and closed sessions are allowed in very limited circumstances. Remedies for violation of the law are swift and significant.
State and local government information is assumed to be public unless officials can state a legal reason for keeping it secret. They must act on a citizen’s request within three working days. If information is withheld, citizens can appeal to the state attorney general, whose opinion carries the force of law, although government can appeal to the courts. The Kentucky attorney general’s office has a long, distinguished record of favoring openness.
These laws aren’t just for news organizations trying to be watchdogs. Citizens can, and often do, use these laws to hold public officials accountable. (For more information about Kentucky’s open records and meetings laws, visit the Kentucky Press Association’s Web site.)
Were it not for journalists’ active use of Kentucky’s “sunshine” laws, the public wouldn’t know about the abuses at Blue Grass Airport and many, many other cases of illegality, impropriety and questionable ethics in government throughout the Commonwealth.
Kentuckians should oppose efforts to curtail these laws, and urge their legislators to close some loopholes.
The Administrative Office of the Courts, which runs the state judiciary, is exempt from the Open Records law. That should change, especially in light of Herald-Leader reporting last year about the wasteful $880 million courthouse building spree the AOC has conducted with little oversight or accountability.
At the least, the AOC should allow the public access to electronic court records now available online only to lawyers and police agencies. Federal courts have done this for years. There’s no reason to make people go to courthouses to see records that already are public documents.
Another loophole that needs closing involves juvenile court records. Although there are legitimate privacy issues to consider, there’s a much bigger concern that keeping these records secret allows abuse by state agencies and the courts.
Some Kentucky officials are using the Internet to make government more transparent. Among the best examples are the new “Open Door” Web site, created by Gov. Steve Beshear and a bipartisan task force, and Secretary of State Trey Grayson’s “Online Checkbook” site.
Obama said that “transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones” of his administration. Those are bold words, and we must hold him to them. We also must demand the same of our state and local leaders — all of them.
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