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“I just don’t buy the argument that it’s going to stifle appropriate discussions,” [Rick] Talbert said. “It may stifle inappropriate discussions” (regarding a bill before the state legislature requiring governments in the state to make a record of closed-door meetings.)

Jason Hagey of the News Tribune writes (in Baarsma and Tacoma City council debate state bill requiring taping of meetings) of the revealing misadventures:

Mayor Bill Baarsma was particularly outspoken, peppering the meeting with comments in between the speeches and questioning of council members. At various points, Baarsma feigned surprise when the council was told the bill would not apply to caucus meetings of state legislators. He offered his opinion that no member of the city’s law enforcement and firefighter retirement board – which frequently discusses medical issues – would ever meet in executive session if a meeting were being recorded.

As the discussion wound down, and as Baarsma continued with his stream of commentary, Talbert referred to the mayor’s “continual editorial comments.”

“It’s my right,” Baarsma said.

“Your right?” Talbert answered, his face reddening.

“First Amendment,” Baarsma said. “First Amendment.”

And then Baarsma slammed his gavel and declared Talbert out of order.

Does Baarsma thinks that his First Amendment rights supersede Talbert’s? Maybe he just doesn’t understand the constitution and that it would actually be him (Baarsma) that was in violation of it as a government official who restricted Talbert’s free speech. Or maybe he should have cited the rules of order governing city council meetings rather than the constitution.

Regardless, I wouldn’t call this a shining moment for our mayor, but I would call his behavior into question. When people behave erratically I always want to know why. Passionate commitment? Hidden agenda? Chemical imbalance?

In this case I’m leaning toward the ‘hidden agenda’ answer to Baarsma’s erratic behavior. Sometimes politicians and bureaucrats forget who they work for (that’s us, in case you didn’t know.) As their employer we need to know what’s going on. They’re out there spending our money and representing us, the voters, so we need to know what they’re doing.

Whenever politicians try to hide what they’re doing I get suspicious. I think it’s human nature. While on one hand we want to trust the people we’ve elected, on the other hand they repeatedly show us that we really shouldn’t. Such is the case with this (probably meaningless) measure that was in front of the Tacoma City Council this week and next.

As for the idea that items in executive session should never be seen by anyone outside that room is ridiculous. When records are made there are still plenty of protections in place to keep information out of the hands of people who would misuse it. In many cases the matter ends up in the courts to resolve whether the information should be released.

One council member commented that “she didn’t oppose the idea of strengthening rules regarding government transparency, but she was skeptical of the bill.” Again I ask, why?

I agree with Talbert:

Recording executive sessions could raise the level of public trust in government, he said. “There is a – maybe legitimate – amount of mistrust of what goes on in city government,” Talbert said. He dismissed concerns raised by the Association of Washington Cities that recording executive sessions would stifle legitimate discussions, infringe on attorney-client privilege and cost too much to carry out.

Another question that I have to ask is, ‘why is this so important to these people, especially Baarsma, that they would even debate such an issue, and then discuss it in such a disorderly manner.’ This issue is at the state level, not the city. Aren’t there a few other issues that can be addressed in those council meetings?

As for legislative caucuses being exempt, those are covered under the freedom of assembly. They’re assembling as a caucus not a governing body. So whether Mr. Baarsma’s surprise was real or staged, it’s an appropriate exclusion. It’s basically the same as the phone conversation that was illegally taped between Newt Gingrich (R), John Boehner (R) and others (R’s all) which was eventually leaked to the press by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Seattle). He was found guilty in court, by the way. So even if caucuses weren’t excluded in the bill, they would likely be excluded by the courts.

Attorney-client privilege is another matter that’s being abused by both government officials and private citizens. Currently it’s being misused by people who simply ‘cc’ their attorney on any correspondence so that it cannot be used against them in court. In my opinion, the only things that should be covered by attorney-client privilege are issues where the individual was actually consulting the attorney.

While perusing the state’s roster of bills I noticed one where information in executive session related to collective bargaining would be required to be recorded. On the surface it sounds like labor unions got their bought-and-paid-for elected officials to put that piece of tripe in the mix. It sounds to me like nothing more than a way for negotiators to get a look at their opponents cards while they sit at the table. I’m guessing the bill mentioned above would have the same effect.

Update: Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF) is watching the bill (HB 3292) in Olympia. Their comment on it was enlightening:

HB 3292 would require the audio recording of all closed sessions of public meetings. The recordings would stay private (like other materials from such a session) unless the legality of the closed session was challenged. If challenged, a judge would privately review the recording and, if the board violated the law, could release the non-executive portion of the meeting. Some local government officials think this is a crazy, scary, possibly-world-ending bill.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 9:09 pm and is filed under Tacoma Contradictions, Washington State. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.