Alaska editorial: A welcome call for openness
This editorial appeared in Thursday's Fairbanks Daily News-Miner:
How good it was to hear Republican Rep. John Harris tell Alaskans that he favors greater openness in the Republican legislative caucus, of which he has been a part for several years now. Rep. Harris, who hopes to be speaker of the House when the new Legislature convenes in January, told an Alaska Public Radio Network reporter that he sees no reason why some of what now occurs behind closed doors cannot be done in public.
Rep. Harris said that he and the present House speaker, Rep. Pete Kott of Anchorage, are "probably looking at trying to do less behind closed doors and more with open doors."
Alaskans should applaud the goal and press for it to become reality.
The idea of a majority of elected officials meeting behind closed doors doesn't sit well with many Alaskans, evidenced by their periodic complaints in the letters to the editor and by the editorials of opposition in various Alaska newspapers. The closed meetings, under the heading of party business, are routinely conducted by the majority Republicans but were also held regularly in secret when the Democrats were in control in Juneau.
Too often now the complaint from the public and the media is that events on the Senate and House floor are scripted to excess. The majority will arrive on the floor with its predetermined position ready for public display, with any dissent worked out in advance and out of sight
Closed-door meetings by their nature get those on the outside thinking - right or not - that underhanded activities are underway. Closed-door caucuses do have a place in aiding legislative efficiency, but the belief that undesirable activities can occur led a crowd of people to go before a special public-legislative committee earlier this year to ask for tighter controls on such sessions.
A few weeks after that meeting, the Legislature approved House Bill 563, which on June 30 became law without the governor's signature. The law allows legislators to meet "in a closed caucus or in a private, informal meeting to discuss and deliberate on political strategy" and goes on with a broad definition of "political strategy." The law also allows closed caucus meetings for "discussions of issues in the context of political strategy."
But Rep. Harris, whose district runs from Valdez up to Eielson Air Force Base, told APRN he sees no reason why most of what's discussed in caucus needs to be kept from the public. And he went on with this statement: "It makes it better for the public."
Well, how about that?