government transparency

Via e-mail from our friends at NC's Open Government Coalition:

Please join us for Sunshine Day from noon to 4 p.m. Monday, March 11 at the McKimmon Center on the N.C. State University campus. Speakers will include veteran journalists from North Carolina and more than a dozen experts and advocates for open government, including our keynote speaker Lucy Dalglish, the dean of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. We encourage citizens, journalists, government employees, librarians, lawyers, public officials, anyone and everyone to attend.

I don't have to tell anyone reading this what's at stake, now more than ever. The NC GOP knows that most of their policy efforts aid a handful of the wealthy while punishing the vast majority of our citizenry. And they will try to conceal that from the public at-large whenever possible. We can't allow that to happen.

I guess if you want to know what's going on, you'll have to go yourself:

The Sun Journal was not allowed inside the show despite the fact that Craven County Sheriff’s Office personnel were issuing gun permits at a table lined with those applying, like Blake Taylor of New Bern, who said he was getting a hand gun permit.

So much for "open government". Public servants should not be discharging their (taxpayer-funded) duties in a private environment where the proprieter can bar the press from observing. Allowing one without the other is a clear breach of the public's trust and needs, if not the actual letter of the law.

State, Raleigh sign lease for Dix campus
Story from WRAL.com.

I have yet to see the lease signed today by Governor Perdue on behalf of the state of North Carolina. I hope to see it soon to see which party, the state or the city, is responsible for environmental liability and clean up. I raised this issue to members of the Council of State and the Governor, but never received acknowledgment of my questions or the courtesy of a reply to my emails.

The pledge by Greg Poole, leader of the group which calls itself Dix Visionaries, to raise $3 million raises some questions on openness and transparency:

Is there a budget for the master plan? Will the group be inclusive, when appointing the leaders of the planning group? Will Gregory Poole fully commit to funding the master plan privately? Will he make the donors public?

McCrory preaches what he doesn't practice:

"We're going to have ethical government and transparent government, which we also have not had in the Easley and Perdue administrations. That's the two most important parts, because if you're not willing to make the tough decisions and if you aren't ethical, then the trust of the people will not be there."

And yet, when legitimate questions arose about McCrory's Mayoral dealings with his other employer (Duke Energy) and BofA, here's what he had to say about that public records request:

The town crier is about to be muffled:

House Bill 472 would repeal the requirement that local governments publish public notices where people are most likely to notice them – in a newspaper of general circulation. Instead, governments could comply with the law by posting notices on their own websites, and nowhere else.

Take it from somebody who beat his head against the wall trying to get exposure for a published novel, just posting it on your website will accomplish nothing.

Binker gets the bum's rush out of a committee hearing:

At that point, the cop hauled me out of the room. He was nice about it and didn't really seem to want to do what he was being asked to. Because he’s kind of low down on the food chain, I don’t blame him for not knowing the finer points of public meetings laws.

The Sergeant at Arms staff should know better.

Sorry about the Cheech y Chong reference in the title, but I couldn't help myself.

Via the Sunshine Center's monthly newsletter:

You’re not the enemy, but you are suspect to the clerk across the counter to be asking for a public record. In requesting a government record, it will save you time, money, aggravation or all of the above to understand better the clerk or manager you’re asking for the document.

You're not only dealing with laws vs procedures, you're also dealing with people who have the capacity to help or hinder, often depending on how they're approached.