STAR - Open our government

Open our government

"Open our government" published: 9/23/2002 Argus Leader Editorial Board

A well-informed citizenry is the bedrock of representative government and a free society. Without that well-informed citizenry, we have - South Dakota.

Yes, that's harsh. But the truth is that here in South Dakota there is a culture of government secrecy. It is perpetuated by arrogant and ignorant public officials.

It is enforced by both weak laws that allow such secrecy and strong laws that actively keep our citizens in the dark about what government is doing.

How bad is it? The nonprofit, nonpartisan Better Government Association based in Chicago recently ranked South Dakota as the worst state in the entire nation for laws that provide our citizens access to public meetings and public records. The very last - No. 51, counting Washington, D.C.

Want to know if there's a crime spree in your neighborhood? You'll only find out if police feel like telling you.

Want to know the truth about what goes into one of those prison-built homes? Not even a state legislator could find out.

Want to know if the state is investigating a company that could be putting poison into your drinking water? Good luck.

Want to hold public officials accountable for violating our open-meeting laws? Public bodies aren't required to tape-record closed meetings - so just try to prove they violated the law.

The Better Government Association ranking of last in the nation tells us nothing new. It merely puts a number to South Dakota's national embarrassment, and at a terribly ironic time.

"Open Government" published: 9/24/2002 Argus Leader Editorial Board

Distrust, uncooperative South Dakota agencies need to change

On a lazy day in June, reporters and other staff members from South Dakota's 10 daily newspapers swept across the state, going into county courthouses, city halls, police stations.

The goal was simple: Find out just how easy it was for members of the public to get public records.

What they found was disturbing.

While some public officials understand state law and that they represent the public, many did not. Their view is that the records they keep are not public records - but public officials' records.

They are terribly wrong.

Requests for information were met with delays and outright refusal. Those asking for information were greeted with suspicion, and in a couple of cases even questioned by law enforcement.

Now here's what really is troubling: That suspicion didn't come simply because these were newspaper employees doing the asking. The public officials didn't know that until they started their questions. As far as the public officials knew, these were just average Joes and Janes, average South Dakotans - just seeking public information from public officials.

Is this just ignorance of state law, which makes public all documents public officials are required to keep? No doubt, in some cases, that's true.

But the refusals, delays and suspicion are just too widespread to believe that's all there is to this. From one end of the state to the other, public officials think it's perfectly OK to keep public information away from the public.

The reality is that too many public officials in South Dakota think the records, documents and information they're paid by taxpayers to keep constitute their own private stash of details about how government operates. Average South Dakotans need not concern themselves, these public officials believe. Nor do they have any business getting ahold of that private information.

That's sad. Frustrating. Angering. Wrong. Arrogant.

And illegal.

The only way it will change is for the state Legislature to step in:

We need a comprehensive open meetings/open records law that starts with a simple premise: Public business - whether records or meetings - is open to the public. That law should include the right of average citizens to challenge public officials who deny access to meetings and records, as well as civil penalties for those officials who violate the law.
!We need a widespread educational effort for public officials and the public on what our laws say. That educational effort should focus on the rights of South Dakotans and the responsibilities of public officials - whether elected or appointed.

! We also need a commitment from the state attorney general's office that South Dakotans will not be denied their right to open government, and that message has to be made loud and clear to judges and state's attorneys in every county.

Quite simply, South Dakotans have a right to know what their government is doing and how. Whether it's a school board or city council. A county auditor or a police chief. Whether it's a public official's salary or a tax assessment. Whether it's the location of a crime or a meeting agenda.

We don't have open government in South Dakota. It is frustrated by our laws and our public officials.

We must change that and change it now.

What YOU Can Do

Return to "Is South Dakota Burning?" Introduction

Students and Teachers Advocating Respect

ROSEPETL5@aol.com