Open Government

Robert Wayne Tarus just struck a big blow in court for more openness in local government. Now he wants the state Legislature to take the next logical step, and I'm rooting for him to succeed. Tarus is the trucking company manager from Pine Hill who persuaded the state Supreme Court that citizens have a right to videotape public meetings. The court said there could be reasonable curbs, but not a ban. I don't live in Pine Hill and have no immediate plans to run over to the municipal building with my JVC. But I'm thrilled, for I believe there's no such thing as too much openness in government.

It might have been a year late, but Republican Karen Martynick was elected chairwoman of the Chester County Board of Commissioners at its reorganization meeting last night. "All good things come in time," said her Republican colleague, newcomer Colin Hanna, who nominated Martynick. Last year, former Commissioner Joseph Kenna decided to serve a second term as chairman, breaking a county Republican tradition. Kenna's move dismayed both Martynick and county GOP leaders. Martynick pledged a return to tradition and promised to hand over the reins to Hanna next year.

After Watergate, the news media seemed to have lost their desire to be watchdogs of government, losing the courage to challenge the contradictions of the Reagan administration. The Iran-contra revelations have changed that. Since 1980, a lack of competition in the national spotlight, a timid Congress and the almost total absence of public criticism had allowed the Reagan administration to draw a cloak of secrecy about its inner workings. The Lebanese magazine that revealed the Iran arms deal caused the cloak to be lifted slightly.

After the nation endured eight years of an administration with a reputation for excessive secrecy, promoting open government must have seemed like a political slam dunk to our new, basketball-loving president. As a candidate and as president, Barack Obama has promised to bring so much openness to the federal government that one might have expected Washington to be as transparent as a fishbowl. But instead of restoring public confidence in government, Obama's rhetoric on transparency seems to have raised unrealistic expectations.

For the sake of public awareness and open government, Democratic House Speaker Robert W. O'Donnell of Philadelphia has embraced the glare of the cameras. O'Donnell said yesterday that the public television affiliate here, WITF- TV, would have "unlimited access" to videotape all House floor proceedings and that its footage could be used by commercial TV stations. They have only to ask. But just how open government will be could turn on this question: Will the cameras be allowed to focus on the huge electronic boards where the votes of legislators are registered?

Showing an admirable willingness to listen and adjust, Gov. McGreevey has stepped back from an order that would have hidden thousands of government documents from public view. In July, Mr. McGreevey issued an executive order undercutting the state's day-old, open-records law by making 583 exemptions in the name of homeland security. Information absurdly lumped into precautions against terrorism included charter-school applications, farmland-preservation proposals, endangered-species maps, and requests to rent a famed concert hall in Trenton.

Main Line activist Joseph Gambescia announced Monday his plans to seek the Democratic nomination for state senator for the 17th District. The seat is now held by Republican Richard A. Tilghman, who has said he will seek re-election. Gambescia, 46, said he would attack government spending during his campaign. "It is kind of unusual for the Democrat to be the fiscal conservative," he said during a telephone interview Monday. Back-room deals must also be eliminated, Gambescia said.

Mayor Nutter can rationalize it all he wants, but his closed-door budget meetings with City Council - at a minimum - violate the spirit of the state's Sunshine Law. The mayor did it again Wednesday night, barring the public and the media from his meeting with 16 of the 17 Council members at City Hall. They talked for more than four hours about proposed budget cuts and layoffs, which Nutter announced to the public yesterday. (We'll have more to say about those cuts on Sunday). It's at least the fourth time this year that Nutter has met in secret with a quorum of Council members.

This is National Sunshine Week, dedicated to celebrating the importance of open government and freedom of information. Sadly, though, here in the Philadelphia region, the forecast calls for clouds and closed government. The Inquirer's "Heard in the Hall" feature recently included a stunning headline: "Council members hold private meeting to discuss public process. " It reported that Philadelphia's City Council had met in secret to discuss whether to hold public budget meetings in the city's neighborhoods.

President Bush expressed dismay yesterday over plans to require U.S., Canadian and Mexican citizens to show passports to enter the United States - a requirement of an intelligence-overhaul bill he signed late last year. He said the requirement could "disrupt the honest flow of traffic. " Speaking to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Bush said he had instructed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Department of Homeland Security to review the plan to see if there was any way to lessen the impact.

By Leonard Boasberg I'm a liberal. You got a problem with that? A lot of liberals do. The Republicans have managed so well to demonize the word that many liberals prefer to call themselves progressives. Liberal. Progressive. What's the difference? "When I use a word," said Humpty-Dumpty in rather a scornful tone, "it means exactly what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less. " What is a liberal? We liberals believe in the open mind and the open society. We believe in fair play, civil liberties, and due process of law. We believe in open government, and the constitutional arrangement of three coequal branches of government, and we are highly suspicious of concentrated power in any of them.

It's tough to stand out as a stubbornly backward government in South Jersey, what with the Delaware River Port Authority constantly raising the bar. But darned if Gloucester County didn't find a way. The county freeholders have proven themselves so incapable of obeying the state's open-meetings law that they require a babysitter. State Superior Court Judge Francis J. Orlando Jr. recently imposed six months of independent monitoring on the board to make sure it breaks its habit of doing the public's business in private.

After the nation endured eight years of an administration with a reputation for excessive secrecy, promoting open government must have seemed like a political slam dunk to our new, basketball-loving president. As a candidate and as president, Barack Obama has promised to bring so much openness to the federal government that one might have expected Washington to be as transparent as a fishbowl. But instead of restoring public confidence in government, Obama's rhetoric on transparency seems to have raised unrealistic expectations.

This is National Sunshine Week, dedicated to celebrating the importance of open government and freedom of information. Sadly, though, here in the Philadelphia region, the forecast calls for clouds and closed government. The Inquirer's "Heard in the Hall" feature recently included a stunning headline: "Council members hold private meeting to discuss public process. " It reported that Philadelphia's City Council had met in secret to discuss whether to hold public budget meetings in the city's neighborhoods.

Mayor Nutter can rationalize it all he wants, but his closed-door budget meetings with City Council - at a minimum - violate the spirit of the state's Sunshine Law. The mayor did it again Wednesday night, barring the public and the media from his meeting with 16 of the 17 Council members at City Hall. They talked for more than four hours about proposed budget cuts and layoffs, which Nutter announced to the public yesterday. (We'll have more to say about those cuts on Sunday). It's at least the fourth time this year that Nutter has met in secret with a quorum of Council members.

The Camden Board of Education has refused to release the $341 million budget document approved Monday night. The document was distributed to board members and collected from them after the vote. Members of the public and the media were not permitted to review it. The board, which had to take action to meet a state deadline, released only the budget total but with sketchy details. The board plans to meet tomorrow to reexamine the budget, which contains about $14 million in cuts, and consider other alternatives.

Two Republican township commissioners are looking to expand their political horizons in the race to succeed the 17th District's retiring state senator, Connie Williams. Lisa Paolino, 46, a marketing consultant from the Delaware County side of the district, was first elected a Radnor Township commissioner in 1999. She has served as the board's vice president since 2003. Montgomery County's Lance Rogers, 33, a lawyer at Pepper Hamilton L.L.P., was elected to the Lower Merion commission in 2005, as an independent - a point lifelong Republican Paolino is quick to note.

Montco fault lines Is that bipartisan harmony breaking out in Montgomery County with this week's power-sharing deal between Republican Commissioner Jim Matthews and Democratic Commissioner Joe Hoeffel? Or is it the upshot of a male cat fight among three big egos? Matthews, the new commission chair, says he's following voters' wishes in helping Hoeffel become vice chair - thus freezing out fellow Republican Bruce Castor. After all, Democrats won five other key county offices in November.

It would be nice to get excited about the Pennsylvania Senate's passage of a stronger Right-to-Know Law that gives the public greater access to government records. But the bill the Senate passed Wednesday night with only one dissenting vote is flawed in that it exempts the legislature from its requirements. Only State Sen. Vincent Fumo (D., Phila.) held out for a bill without that limit. The latest House version of a new public records law is stronger, allowing fewer opportunities for the legislature to escape its reach.

Robert Wayne Tarus just struck a big blow in court for more openness in local government. Now he wants the state Legislature to take the next logical step, and I'm rooting for him to succeed. Tarus is the trucking company manager from Pine Hill who persuaded the state Supreme Court that citizens have a right to videotape public meetings. The court said there could be reasonable curbs, but not a ban. I don't live in Pine Hill and have no immediate plans to run over to the municipal building with my JVC. But I'm thrilled, for I believe there's no such thing as too much openness in government.