"Yeah, but ..."

Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Jennings, link, promised Mark Bralley, link, and me, a thirty-minute meeting. And then and gave us forty; plenty of time to make our case.

Our interest; getting him to step up as the champion of open government in the Legislature.



I made my usual argument;
the power belongs to the people,
the resources belong to the people,
the truth about how they are being spent, belongs to the people; all of it.

Some of it, though it belongs to the people, is not shared with the people for good and ethical reasons. The rest should be immediately and easily available; public records, open meetings, and robust webcasting to a searchable archive.

I argued that the line between the truth that should and should not be made public needs to be clear, unequivocal; limited only by specific exceptions written in law.

Finally, any disputes over the location of the line need to be settled impartially and rather immediately by some administrative process rather than length, expensive and cumbersome lawsuits.

The Senator said he couldn't disagree with any of the points we made.

He argued that the Legislature shouldn't have to be candid, forthright, and honest with the people if the same requirement is not placed upon the Executive Branch, the Judicial Branch, and the Press.

Our feeling was, and is, someone has to set the example. Rather than waiting for the Governor to step up, the Legislature needs to step up and set the example.

In the end, we could not get him to step up as the champion of truly open and transparent government.

We thanked him
for his time, and
let him know
we would be back.





photos Mark Bralley
MaryEllen Broderick DfNM caught Bralley catching her.