Archive for December 12th, 2007
Keep the sun shining on state government
In case you missed Tennessean columnist Larry Daughtrey’s take on Gov. Bredesen’s once-reluctant embrace of open government, here’s a snapshot:
Bredesen opened up the state budget process, and it is no longer a big issue on Capitol Hill. When Bredesen became mayor of Nashville, he told reporters the other day, “I was flabbergasted and appalled at how you had to do business (in public). It just seemed to me almost impossible to hire people and do business. ‘I’ve come to realize you can work in this environment.’Yes, it has a substantial load attached to it in terms of how efficiently you can make decisions, but in the end government just works better if you come down on that side of it.’
What is a big issue on Capitol Hill these days is an effort by some local officials to go in the other direction — to change state law so they can meet in secret to talk about hiring and firing, pay raises and scandals.”
In a state not far removed from Operation Tennessee Waltz and a nation where political scandals are a spectator sport, who does it benefit, beyond those directly involved, to roll back sunshine laws? I don’t think it helps the general public, and at a time when transparency continues to increase in importance, I agree with Newscoma and others that a step in the opposite direction would definitely be backward and a bad move for Tennessee.
Oops, wrong Lt. Gov.
State Senator and former Lt. Gov. John Wilder, whose three decades at the helm of the State Senate ended dramatically in January, can’t be excited about this typo from opponents of plans to build a meeting hall at the Governor’s Mansion:
Surely the people energized on this issue could go on and on all day about the veracity of the claims made in the ad. But here’s one thing we know is wrong: The phone number listed for Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey.
The number listed there … is actually the phone number for former Lt. Gov. (now Sen.) John Wilder’s office. We just got a call from Wilder’s office to say they’re being flooded with phone calls from people who saw the ad.
The correct number for Ramsey’s office is [615] 741-4524.
Wilder lost his status as Speaker of the Senate (and Lt. Gov.) despite his strong desire to retain the title. This isn’t a pleasant reminder of that defeat, but it may be a relief to Wilder that he isn’t having to address the calls intended for current-Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey. Whew.
