passopenrecords.org

Several years ago, never mind how many, I ran for public office. We’ll skip the details of why I ran, what office I sought, and what party I represented. But as something of an (undoubtedly naïve) idealist, I tried to run on issues . . . public issues. Not for me the world of earmarks, of bringing home the bacon, of constituent services. My job, I thought, was to be a statesman and make decisions based on the needs of a broad public; not to render private services at public expense. Needless to say, I got clobbered.

On the other hand, I have a good friend who has been very successful in politics. He is one of the most thoughtful legislators I know, and he is re-elected with relative ease each year. And he runs – RUNS – on constituent services. He doesn’t look down his nose at such things, for he thinks that a big part of his job is to help people navigate their way through a complex government bureaucracy. Astute politicians and political organizations have been doing that since the birth of the republic . . . or at least the opening of Tammany Hall. And who can argue that we don’t all need help from our representatives at various times in our lives?

And yet, as I read the legislative comments about open records, I think I may have had a point. How often have we heard our legislators say that any new law must not violate the privacy of their constituents and their need to keep constituent communications confidential? Clearly, there are things about each of us that the public has no business knowing. But we have sent our representatives – our leaders – to Harrisburg – and we pay them – to do the public’s business, not simply to work on the private affairs of their constituents at public expense.

The public’s business should be done in the open where we can all see what is going on, and that is why we need open records reform when the legislature reconvenes in January.