Our View

Little sunshine in Wyoming

Members of the Legislature can talk all they want about how theybelieve in an open legislative process is in Wyoming, but in realitythey do whatever they can get away with to lock the public out ofthe process.

This is the fourth annual celebration of Sunshine Week: YourRight to Know. It is an offshoot of Sunshine Sunday, which began inFlorida in 2002. That was developed by Florida media as lawmakersthere to restrict public information after Sept. 11, 2001.

The first national week was held in 2005.

The spirit of Sunshine Week lasts all year long as media membersmaintain a dialogue about the importance of open government to thepublic. Your WTE believes this is essential, which is why we reportlocal public access violations and even have gone to court in thename of openness.

Face it, Wyoming is not immune to government secrecy.

Two years ago, the Legislature voted to override Gov. DaveFreudenthal's veto of Senate File 5. This ill-conceived bill makeslegislators a protected class. It allows them to work behind closeddoors to prepare legislation. And it keeps secret all documents,reports and conversations in relation to that legislation. So muchfor openness.

SF 5 also is contrary to the state's open records law. E-mailsare supposed to be public documents in Wyoming; the law says so. Butwith SF 5, e-mails involving pre-legislation no longer are availablefor inspection.

And over the years the Legislature has rejected - again and again- the idea of electronic voting and reporting of votes.

Rather, voice votes and hand-counting rule the day, allowingindividual lawmakers to hide in the crowd. They certainly do notwant to have their votes on an electronic board and published on theInternet. Indeed, they don't even record committee votes.

The bottom line is that lawmakers like to keep you in the dark.That way they can spin the facts at election time.

And the secrecy doesn't stop there. Republican lawmakers closethe doors when they caucus. These essentially are illegal meetings,but since lawmakers exempted themselves from this law, they canignore its intent.

But the Legislature is not the only one keeping the public in thedark.

When the Laramie County Community College Board of Directorsdecided to interview for candidates for the school's presidency,they did so behind closed doors. They treated taxpayers like third-class citizens because they didn't believe the public should hearwhat they had to say.

The Laramie County School District 1 Board of Trustees did thesame thing when it hired its new superintendent. Apparently trusteesare more important than are the people whose children are in theschools.

And the WTE had to take legal action against former LaramieCounty Sheriff Roger Alsop to obtain a report about issues facingthe Laramie County Detention jail. We also have fought with thecounty over access to arrest reports, jail records, coroner'sreports and restaurant inspection documents, all of which areclearly public records.

In all these instances, it boils down to your right to keep trackof what elected officials are doing. It's about accountability onthe part of public officials. It's about upholding what the Foundersenvisioned for this nation.

Sunshine Week is about your right to know what your government isdoing.