We need national open meeting law

Every state in our nation has some kind of Sunshine laws, or open meeting laws as they are often called. These laws are designed to keep the doors open for meetings conducted by our local and state public officials. There are  special circumstances called executive sessions that allow the public to be excluded from these meetings. Going into an executive session behind closed doors requires a majority vote of the members and discussion is restricted to the expressed purpose of the closure motion.

According to state law, public meetings may be closed only for the following reasons.

• Discussing the qualifications, competence, performance, character or fitness of any public officer or employee or prospective public officer or employee. The term “employee” does not include any independent contractor.

• Discussing the expulsion, suspension, discipline, assignment of or the educational program of a student.

• Consulting with legal counsel or reviewing communications from legal counsel about proposed or pending litigation or contractual matters.

• Preparing for contract negotiations or negotiating with employees or employee representatives.

• Discussing marketing or pricing strategies by a board or commission of a business owned by the state or any of its political subdivisions, when public discussion may be harmful to the competitive position of the business.

South Dakota has made huge strides in the enforcement of its open meeting laws. The South Dakota Open Meetings Commission has been established and receives complaints of any violations from a county state’s attorney. After an investigation, the commission determines whether certain conduct has violated the law. If it determines by a majority of its five members that a violation has occurred, then a public reprimand is issued to the offending official or governmental entity. All findings are a public record.

There is a reason we want to keep the doors of elected officials open in this country. One only has to look at what is currently happening in our U.S. Congress and Senate as they refine proposed national health care legislation. Special deals are being cut with individual senators and special interest groups. Just this past week, union leaders paid a visit to the White House where they struck a deal that would guarantee their continued support of the Democratic Party in return for their members’ exemption from the so-called Cadillac Tax of the proposed health care legislation for five years. The deal would exempt union members from the 40 percent excise tax on these super health insurance plans until 2018, five years after legislation kicks in.

Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska was guaranteed his state would be paid $100 million to offset costs of the federal Medicaid program. This deal was struck behind closed doors in order to secure Nelson’s vote for health care. The senator had been holding out over language in the bill that covers federally-funded abortions. The Congressional Budget Office estimated this so-called “Cornhusker Kickback” would cost $1.2 billion over 10 years. Massachusetts and Vermont got similar deals from the federal government.

Sen. Mary Landrieu got what is termed the “Louisiana Purchase” for her state that will amount to $300 million in order to secure her positive health care vote. The list goes on and on and we’re sure we haven’t even heard of all the backroom deals that have been made. Who do you suppose will be making up the difference in all these sweetheart deals for these senators and their states and why is there such a rush to jam it down our throats?

It’s time we hold this president accountable for his campaign promises of transparency and having C-SPAN cameras in on all the health care negotiations. We need to hold his feet to the fire and demand to open the doors to the public so the appropriate people can be held accountable for all these outright bribes. They need to know they will not get away with this dishonest, outrageous behavior relating to this unpopular legislation.

It is time for all of us to demand a national public open meetings law for all our U.S. Congress members and Senators. They have proven without a doubt on this health care legislation issue that they cannot be trusted to do what is in our best interests. Time is long past for public accountability.

It’s time to let the sun shine in on our nation’s Capitol building.