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PoliticsOL.com Editorial - Week of August 19, 2001
Government Should Not Be Conducted In Secret
There are, of course, times when government business must be conducted behind closed doors, such as in critical national security matters and when juries conduct deliberations.
But, how best to reform Social Security is not one of those times.
Neither is how much California should pay for electricity.
From the Federal government down to local school boards, there is a tendancy to hide official government action from the public when it involves controversial decisions.
This past week the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority's Tourism Industry Task Force met behind closed doors and voted to recommend SMG to operate the convention center there.
Also this past week, San Francisco International Airport officials refused to release environmental impact reports on runway expansions to environmental groups.
The Bush Administration has come under fire for holding energy policy hearings behind closed-doors and now the same accusations abound about a Social Security reform task force. Similar criticism was leveled at the Clinton Administration with its failed health care reform task force headed by then-First Lady, now-Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
In California, Governor Gray Davis has come under fire for refusing to turn over to the State Legislature power contracts he signed during the peak of the State's power crisis.
Recently, the Nashville Thermal Transfer Plant met behind closed doors to select a new general manager, apparently violating Tennessee's public meetings laws.
State agencies and local boards routinely violate notice requirements, denying the opportunity of concerned citizens to voice their opinions and preventing the media and press from reporting on decisions until they are already made.
Overlooking the Gettysburg battlefield on November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln spoke of a "government of the people, by the people, for the people."
Yet, apparently, too many elected and government officials want to keep government "from the people."
A free people can not have routine governmental business conducted like some Soviet Politburo session and still call itself, "free."
PoliticsOL.com reserves the right to shorten or to edit letters for clarity. Only signed letters will be considered for publication. (i.e., include name, city & state of residence)
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