District of Columbia Council members voted unanimously Dec. 21 to replace one of the nation’s most toothless open-meeting laws with another similarly weak measure that fails to provide an acceptable level of government transparency to local residents in the nation’s capital. The old law required that only council meetings where “official action” — such as a vote — was taken be open to the public. The new one, inappropriately dubbed the “Open Government is Good Government Act of 2010,” continues to exclude the public from council committee meetings where most of the real legislating occurs and before votes are taken. It’s extremely disappointing that Mayor-elect Vincent Gray voted against more transparency after spending the last four years blasting the Fenty administration for its secrecy. It’s similarly disgusting that incoming Council Chairman Kwame Brown is already backing away from his campaign promises to support measures designed to bring more transparency to local governance. We do not intend to allow either of them to forget their solemn pledges to post the city’s checkbook online so that everybody can see where District tax dollars are going.
In the end, none of the 13 council members were willing to subject themselves and their colleagues to the same open-meeting standards required of more than 160 other public bodies ranging from the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board to the Zoning Commission. In response to a question by Gray, government operations committee Chairwoman Mary Cheh, D-Ward 3, readily admitted that the council could exempt itself from compliance. In voting for this charade, council members made a mockery of the public’s right to know what their elected representatives are doing.
The new law, which was vigorously opposed by the Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Press Association (of which
The Examiner is a member), the Open Government Coalition and the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, has other flaws. It sets up a nominally independent Open Government Office to enforce its provisions, but the new agency has no authority to enforce the Freedom of Information Act or compel public officials to produce records of clandestine meetings. It also does not empower private citizens to seek redress in court if the watchdog agency fails to do its job. The new law is window dressing meant to distract public attention from the opaque butcher paper covering official windows. Sunshine is threatening only to those who have something to hide. Open government is good government, but thanks to the council, it’s still not to be found in the District of Columbia.
