Secrecy was an open-and-shut case during most of the legislative session.
It began with redistricting, a process that the State Integrity Project rated "F" for lack of transparency.
Four months later, it drew to a close with a secret Sunday confab in a Nashville restaurant to carve up the pork in the budget bill. House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick defended the rendezvous, saying, "There's been a lot of secrecy for 200 years. I don't think it's any worse than it's always been."
Sadly, that may be true. As they often have done in the past, lawmakers again added exemptions to the Public Records Act, meaning that more public business can be kept private.
For instance, the University of Tennessee and the Tennessee Board of Regents no longer have to make public all the candidates in a presidential search. Instead, the names of just three finalists must be revealed.
This is supposed to address a long-standing complaint that the best candidates don't apply for Tennessee jobs because they can't risk being outed as job-hunters unless they have a really good chance of landing the new gig.
Now Tennessee will be able to steal top administrators away from other states, as we did 10 years ago when UT's last secret search snagged John Shumaker from the University of Louisville.
Of course, Shumaker resigned a year later in a scandal involving misuse of funds. But I guess even secret searches can't get it right all the time.
State employee performance evaluations also are secret now under Gov. Bill Haslam's civil service reform.
These evaluations will be used to determine salary increases, pay cuts, promotions, demotions, transfers and firings. But the public can't see them.
That nixes stories such as the one we did in February about State Trooper Charles Van Morgan, who was fired for ignoring a crash that killed a 20-year-old Knoxville man.
Reporter Matt Lakin delved into Morgan's personnel file and discovered that the trooper's bosses had given him consistently high marks despite earlier disciplinary problems. Lawmakers, in their wisdom, have now prevented such reporting.
A sneaky method was used to slip in another secrecy bill. To avoid public debate, lawmakers used a 14-month-old "caption bill" — a blank bill with a vague heading — to disguise a proposal to exempt the performance evaluations of teachers from the Public Records Act, too.
Maybe the one good thing that can be said about the session is that it could have been worse.
Early on, there was a push to amend the Open Meetings Act to allow secret gatherings of members of school boards, county commissions and city councils as long as a full quorum did not attend. Haslam and Sen. Ken Yager wisely put the kibosh on that attempt to drop the shades on the Sunshine Law.
Haslam, in turn, was thwarted in his desire to let the state give incentive grants to businesses that did not want to reveal the identity of their owners.
"If a company wants public money they ought to be honest and public about who they are," said Sen. Roy Herron, in an argument that ultimately carried the day.
Amen.
Jack McElroy is editor of the News Sentinel. He may be reached at 865-342-6300, at editor@knoxnews.com or through The Upfront Page at http://blogs.knoxnews.com.
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Comments » 29
grandmuftiofeducation writes:
Well said Jack.
JackBailey37828 writes:
transparency is just a word used by politicians to get elected. if you thought they would stand by that promise you are delusional. much like the obama administration and pelosi's congress, promise transparency and then close the shades.
rainbow6 writes:
Jack wouldn't be happy if ice cream was cold. He is like some old busy body woman peeking out the window at her neighbors trying to see what they are up to.
bbholston#1398245 writes:
I understand why this Republican led legislature prefers to keep things secret. These corrupt puppets, who primarily report to special interest groups outside of Tenn.,passed some of the worst legislation ever in this years session. They are a disgrace to their state and the people who voted for them. Not one job was created as a result of their efforts, all we got were strange laws dealing with sex [always a Republican favorite] and other laws trying to solve problems that do not exist. The main concerns for the legislature this year was destroying public education, bad gun laws that discourage outside investment and homophobic laws against gays. How proud they must be. Haslam, a political moderate, has had to babysit this group of irresponsible grandstanders all year and in the end, they have made him look like a weak leader who can't control his own party.
cpasteve writes:
Keep it up Jack. Our legislature is a disgrace, and one of the basic if not the most important reasons for the first amendment and a free press is so that the people can be kept informed of governmental misbehavior.
Butterbeans writes:
Jack has the job of keeping us informed about what those fools we elected are doing with the power we temporarily gave them. He better be "peeking" around to do his job. Thanks Jack. We should all know which ones to vote out of office next time around. Too many secrets, too much stupidity. The Knox group needs replacement.
trifarmed writes:
Amen!!!
WorkingTaxpayer writes:
So Jack,
Seeing as how the KNS used government money to build that big metal shed on the hill I wonder when you are going to provide the link to all the employee pay and personal evaluations for the KNS. Lord knows you never lived up to producing the jobs promised.
Number69 writes:
Being a very hard core far right Republican I hate to say it but this session produced some amazing Bovine Droppings.
Tacamo01 writes:
Did the school board list more than three candidates for super? I can't remember. Dr Mc was out anyway in Boston with budget deficits in the Millions.
nattybumpo writes:
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You're correct in that we should know who to "vote out of office".
Case in point,............The lack of transparency of the Democrat party. Perfectly illustrated by then Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.
"“We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it”
ZZTOP writes:
Anything less than transparency usually has a deceptive reason. Honesty and integrity still count for me. Good job Jack.
Squeezy (Inactive) writes:
So not revealing names from a UT President search committee worries your sense of gov't fairness & "transparency".....
yet a massively corrupted Federal entitlement spending debacle like Obamacare - being "passed" by the most dubious, NON-transparent, secretive, DEEPLY CORRUPTED "process" in American history - doesn't worry you even a *tiny* little bit? Naaah, of course not.
Well, one thing I can say about Obamacare "transparency"...... after the Democrats' finished their many NO-Republicans-allowed, locked-door, no-media-or-recording permitted meetings with union lobbyists & union "bundlers" (that wrote Obamacare) - the Democrats were at least "transparent" enough to toss around Billion dollar BRIBES and kickbacks and waivers to each other..... RIGHT ON THE FLOOR OF CONGRESS.
Now THAT, is good, clean, honest, "transparent" government!!! Right, Jack?
And as far as "transparency" & full ethical disclosures go - how about those ridiculous Obamacare "cost estimates" that Obama pooped out? Not one soul on Earth actually BELIEVED those pitifully anemic estimates.... and sure enough - after the bill was actually READ - the cost estimates have already DOUBLED, and will surely increase even more as other hidden special interest goodies & un-known costs are revealed.
Yeah, Jack - we *should* be pacing the floors worrying & fretting about not knowing UT Presidential search committee candidate names (*moan* oh, woe is us)...... but do **NOT** worry about that tiny little multi-TRILLION dollar, deeply-corrupted, bribery-laced, Treasury-busting, National debt-exploding BOONDOGGLE, known as "Obamacare".
It's ironic that "Objective Jack" chose to write about transparency..... because his overt pro-Democrat bias is EXTREMELY transparent, and shining like a floodlight.
nattybumpo writes:
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"The main concerns for the legislature this year was destroying public education"
After 150 years of control by a Democrat Legislature and teacher unions, it is acknowledged by most rankings that Tennessee ranks near the bottom in education. Not much tb proud of.
Think maybe it's time we tried something else?
bbholston#1398245 writes:
Yeah well, the Republicans had no answers now did they? Just shows how out of touch they really are with public education with bizarre bills about don't say gay [a problem that does not exist] and letting parents sue if little Susie gets felt up on the band trip. Aren't you proud? Like yoy say, maybe its time we tried something else-vote Democratic next time.
bretticus25#294810 writes:
First, he must expose you as B-I-have-at-best-a-one-sided-aggressive-relationship-with-the-editor-on-his-turf-PAONE.
Then, he can consider your mission.
I see what you are saying, but America would be better served to have the hypocrisy of Michael-I-Hate-Capitalism-for-everyone-but-myself-so-to-divert-I-gave-a-small-percentage-of-my-fortune-to-charity......-far-less-than-I-would-have-been-forced-to-pay-in-taxes-If-my-insane-ideology-actually-poisoned-my-own-well-Moore.
cejensen writes:
Conservatives rant about Open Government....until they win an election, then all you hear is the slamming of the door. They know better what you need and what you should do, so it's really not necessary to have all those opening meetings and messy stuff like that. It's a lot more efficient if we just decide for you.
nattybumpo writes:
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I'm wishy-washy about the things you mentioned, and I don't think they are exactly as you characterized them.
However, they made a good start in improving our system by changing the tenure rule. Next we need to get to work and eliminate tenure entirely.
Then we should go to work on getting the "social engineering" out of our classrooms and return to "having school".
Sir_Spanky writes:
Drain that swamp! Nancy's a piece of work, isn't she? But my all-time favorite is, "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it".
bretticus25#294810 writes:
This is an honest question. What does the Van Morgan incident have to do with public records making a difference? The guy was fired. The kid died. Both are bad. My take is that his superiors fired him because they appropriately investigated and found him to be a borderline criminal and certainly a man with a lack of ethics, integrity, and honor, and the system worked to get him out.
Help me understand. The guy got obligatory high marks for DUI arrests. Is there something I'm missing about this story?
us43137415#376444 writes:
The sad fact here, is NOT the fact that the Republicans are doing exactly what I predicted they'd do.. take the public business of the state of Tennessee private..
The sad fact here, is.... most Tennesseans don't seem to care about it. I could personally guarantee that in the next election, most of these partisan, scammy fly-by-nighters will be re-elected by wide margins, because the people in this state don't pay attention to political actions unless the actions affect them directly.
Missing in Jack's article, is the effect of lobbyists at the the Tennessee state legislature.. hounds, barking and jumping on the doors of both chambers like they're cornered a bunch of rabbits, waiting to push their business companies' agendas down the throat of Tennesseans, again, who don't care.
Republicans have done nothing the past two years in Tennessee. The state is in dire trouble, and nobody cares. But residents will bash the heck out of Obama.
Sanfu writes:
The remedy for your complaint is very simple. All you libs have to do is start winning elections.
Quit your bellyaching and win some elections, if you can.
Sanfu writes:
"The Knox group needs replacement."
************
Well then go ahead and replace them. We know you libs would if you could, but you can't. You know it, I know it and Jack knows it.
ArtSeen writes:
Sanfu is a troll.
CER1940 writes:
+1
88volgrad writes:
Why should the average public employee's personnel records be available for anyone to view? Working for a government agency shouldn't mean you give up all privacy. I suspect those calling for such openness are the first to complain when some entity such as Facebook makes their information more freely available.
wldockery writes:
Good job, Jack.
literate writes:
Well said.
literate writes:
If she pays her neighbors salaries, then why should she not?
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