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Openness in government discussed at workshop

December 13, 2005 by

From the Times-News

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By Terry Smith
Times-News writer

Idaho Attorney General Lawrence WasdenTWIN FALLS — Elected officials and government workers attended a workshop Monday to learn how to not get in trouble.

Nearly 80 participants, including news media and political activists, attended the Idaho Open Meeting/Public Records workshop at the College of Southern Idaho Herrett Center. The event was organized by Idahoans for Openness in Government and sponsored by The Times-News.

Presenters included Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, who explained the importance of openness in government and also talked about records that can legally be withheld from public perusal.

“A public record is a public record and it is none of the government’s business what a requester wants to do with that document,” Wasden said.

Idahoans for Openness in Government is a nonprofit Boise-based coalition that promotes open government and freedom of information. The Twin Falls workshop was one of several being held around the state by the organization in partnership with Wasden’s office, the Idaho Association of Counties and the Association of Idaho Cities.

Twin Falls County Sheriff Wayne Tousley attended along with eight of his employees. He said the workshop will help his staff have a better legal understanding of when to release and when not to release information.

Presentations included information on the state’s open meeting law, including instances when the public can be legally excluded. Penalties for noncompliance were discussed. Offending officials could be fined up to $300.

Harold Mohlman, a Minidoka Fire Protection District commissioner, said he attended “just so we don’t get in trouble in holding our meetings.” Mohlman actually wore three hats at the event: he is also president of the Idaho Water Users Association and president of A & B Irrigation District in Rupert.

From the Times-News

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Filed Under: Past Seminars

Open meetings forum draws crowd

December 13, 2005 by

From the State Journal

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Workshop focuses on public’s rights

By Dan Boyd Journal Writer

POCATELLO – Although they don’t always have the right to participate, citizens do possess inalienable rights to watch what’s done with their tax dollars, state attorney general’s office representatives said Friday.

During a three-hour-long workshop at Idaho State University that drew more than 100 attendees, media members and state lawyers spelled out the details of Idaho’s oft-misunderstood open meetings laws.

“This is not about thinking outside the box, this is about staying well inside the box,” advised Bill von Tagen, the state’s deputy attorney general. “When in doubt, open the meeting.

“(In many cases), most people don’t care what you’re doing until you close the meeting.”

With state lawmakers, reporters and students in the crowd, the event sought to serve an educational role in explaining when a board or governing body can and can’t close its doors.

“In some states, county commissioners can’t get into a car together without posting a notice they’re having a meeting,” said Dean Miller, managing editor of the Post-Register newspaper in Idaho Falls and one of the workshop’s organizers.

Idaho has no such rules, though officials found to be conducting de facto business in a public place without notifying the public are subject to a $150 fine.

Bannock County Prosecutor Mark Hiedeman said he was encouraged to see a large number of people who weren’t government officials in attendance.

“We’ve had some issues with open meetings here,” he said, referring specifically to turmoil surrounding School District 25’s handling of personnel matters in recent years. “We haven’t fined any local figures, but there have been some close calls.”

Hiedeman said a combination of ignorance, embarrassment and media paranoia are the usual reasons boards or governing bodies run afoul of the law.

In Idaho, the legislative and judicial branches, unlike most local entities, are allowed to close certain meetings because the state’s Constitution allows them to set their own rules.

But von Tagen said elected and local officials alike should remember the government, in its purest essence, belongs to the people.

“People get to see their government, warts and all,” he said. Friday’s event, which was sponsored by the Idaho State Journal, was one of the most highly attended of a series of similar workshops that have been conducted around the state. The final workshop happens Monday in Twin Falls.

Dan Boyd covers politics, higher education and natural resource issues for the Journal. He can be reached at 239-3168 or by e-mail at dboyd@journalnet.com.

From the State Journal

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Filed Under: Past Seminars

IDOG seminars draw crowds in Boise, Caldwell

December 7, 2005 by

Boise Photo Gallery and Caldwell Photo Gallery.

Eighty people in Caldwell and nearly 100 in Boise attended recent IDOG seminars on Idaho’s open meetings and public records laws, led by Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, Deputy Attorney General Bill von Tagen and IDOG President Betsy Russell.

Those in attendance ranged from news reporters, photographers, editors and cameramen to elected local government officials, clerks, deputy clerks and other government employees, school trustees, law enforcement personnel, attorneys and interested citizens.

The Caldwell seminar, held at the Canyon County Courthouse, was co-sponsored by the Idaho Press-Tribune and KBCI Local 2 News. The Boise seminar, held at the Boise Public Library, was co-sponsored by the Idaho Statesman. Six IDOG board members were in attendance at one or both of the seminars: Betsy Russell, reporter for The Spokesman-Review; Rocky Barker, reporter for The Idaho Statesman; Anne Abrams of the Idaho State Library; Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa; Elinor Chehey of the League of Women Voters of Idaho; and Allen Derr, attorney at law.

During the course of the seminars, audience members got a chance to portray various characters in skits to illustrate some do’s and don’ts under Idaho’s open-government laws. That led to some laughs, such as when Ada County Assessor Bob McQuade played the role of “Earnest, the Rookie Reporter” trying to get information from Idaho Statesman political columnist Dan Popkey, who was playing “Undertrained, the Overly Cautious Clerk.”

Here are some of the comments from evaluations filled out by audience members at the end of both seminars:

“Nice review of public records and open meetings.” “Our practice is pretty good, learned a couple of points to improve on board procedure.” “Learned more about the business of the public.” “An informative, organized, and entertaining workshop.” “There are exceptions!” “The public has access to many records that I was not aware of.” “It was fun but a good learning experience.”

The Caldwell and Boise seminars were the eighth and ninth that IDOG has held around the state, with two more coming up Dec. 9 in Pocatello and Dec. 12 in Twin Falls. Previous seminars were in Idaho Falls, Salmon, Lewiston, Moscow, Coeur d’Alene and Sandpoint.

Boise Photo Gallery and Caldwell Photo Gallery.

Filed Under: Past Seminars

Pressure builds on Idaho legislators to keep committee meetings open

December 1, 2005 by

From The Associated Press

By CHRISTOPHER SMITH
Associated Press Writer
Dec. 1, 2005

BOISE, Idaho (AP) – A statewide organization of Idaho citizens is overwhelmingly opposed to lawmakers having carte blanche to close legislative committee hearings, putting more pressure on legislative leaders to craft new rules and end a prolonged court battle over the current closed-door option.

Common Interest is a grass roots organization launched a year ago by a bipartisan group of former Idaho legislators in an effort to give average citizens a voice in the political process.

The 700 members are asked before each legislative session to vote on their top lobbying priorities.

“Our members, and Idahoans in general, consider it a violation of the fundamental principle of democracy that people should be excluded when their business is being discussed,” said Keith Allred, president of the Eagle-based group.

Allred said Common Interest would lobby the Legislature in the 2006 session for a limited closure rule that would allow meeting closures for pending litigation, employee discipline and security matters.

The Idaho Press Club sued the Legislature in 2003 for closing meetings of official committees, arguing that the state Constitution requires all business of the lawmaking body to be conducted “openly, and not in secret session.” A 4th District judge has twice ruled that the framers of the Constitution intended only the general sessions of the House and Senate to be always open, not the committee hearings.

The Press Club has appealed and oral arguments are scheduled Jan. 9 before the Idaho Supreme Court.

Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming are the only western states that allow legislative committees to use any reason to close hearings. Montana, Oregon and Washington require legislative committee hearings to always be open, while Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah allow committees to close hearings in specified extraordinary circumstances.

Between 1990 and 2003, legislative analysts said, only one of thousands of committee hearings was closed. Tension between lawmakers and the media rose in 2003, when six committee meetings were closed. Additional meetings were closed in 2004 as lawmakers negotiated a landmark water rights settlement with the Nez Perce Tribe.

No meetings were closed in the 2005 session, but the Senate voted in February for rule changes allowing committees to close hearings for any reason as long as two-thirds of their members voted in support.

The issue flared up Monday, when Republican members of a joint legislative study committee on state worker salaries voted to go into closed session. That prompted House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley, to issue an admonition that secret caucuses were not appropriate for joint committees.

“I would like to make it clear, as speaker of the House, that our policy is that no committee, standing or interim, have a session in which a subcommittee meets behind closed doors,” Newcomb wrote. He could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, sponsor of the February measure to allow closure with two-thirds support, said Republicans and Democrats had previously agreed on a limited closure rule until Democrats “starting getting political pressure on the editorial pages” and sided with the Press Club in the current litigation.

“I just didn’t feel like there was the commitment from that point,” Davis said Wednesday. “I was willing to do it then, I’m willing to do it now, but I just don’t know where the other side stands on it.”

Senate Minority Leader Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum, said his caucus prefers to wait for the Supreme Court ruling since his Democrats want to “err on the side of more openness rather than less.” He also scoffed at GOP entreaties to join with Democrats in crafting a new rule when Republicans control 80 percent of the Idaho Legislature.

“Since when did Bart need my votes to do anything?” Stennett said Wednesday. “If they want to pass that rule, they have the votes to do so anytime they want to. We’ll wait to see what the Supreme Court says.”

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On the Net: https://www.TheCommonInterest.org

From The Associated Press

Filed Under: Articles