The Public’s Right to Know – Batting .500

A pair of significant decisions – one judicial, the other legislative – impacting the public’s right to local government information have surfaced in the last couple weeks.  The legislature was kinder to local governments (for once) than the courts, but both issues raise some interesting questions about public information and cities’ responsibilities to their residents – and we hope you’ll make good use of our Comments section at the bottom of this story to state any opinions you might have. 

Cities were spared when the Senate Appropriations Committee gutted AB 1393 (Leno) earlier this month.  The Modesto Bee has a thoughtful editorial on the subject, but the gist of the story is that the Bill’s teeth were removed when provisions were dropped that would have included:

• a citizen’s right to review of their public information request by the Attorney General
  
• penalties of up to $100 a day on local governments who were found to have deliberately refused to hand over a public document

So while the Senate has spared cities and counties some additional requirements, not so with the State Supreme Court.

According to a ruling on August 27, local governments are now obligated to reveal virtually all employee salaries (with some potential exclusions for public safety officers).   In an argument that pitted the media against public employee unions, the court decided “openness in government is essential to the functioning of a democracy” and the public has a right to know what its city employees are earning, as well as hiring and firing dates and an array of other human resource-type information.

 

So there you have it.  The State of California says the public has a right to know what you earn, but not necessarily what you’re up to.  Thoughts?

Comments

[William Prince]

I don't have a problem with the public knowing my salary. I think I deserve every penny and then some. While there will always be stories about what appears to be excessive salaries and perks for local government executives, they are no where near comparable with the unwarranted CEO compensation being reported in the media for the private sector (retiring CEO for Mobil/Exxon). Considering the general fish bowl environment of public decision making, the often late night meetings, and the fact that even the village idiot can slander public officials at their whim, with little or no consequences, there are a lot of public officials who deserve to be paid a lot more.

Contrary to popular opininon, and a lot of so called experts, social science research on organizational performance does not demonstrate that the private sector, as a whole, is necessarily more productive than the public sector (think Enron). In Search of Excellence (and the flood of spin-off books that followed) indicate that organizational performance was strongly related to the cultivation and implementation of the "superordinate goals" of the organization by the leadership. Are there any more powerful, inspirational, superordinate goals than the protection of the health, safety and welfare of the community?

[Terry Francke]

The author says "the Senate has spared cities and counties some additional mandates" with its gutting of AB 1393. That bill had no mandates in it; see the Legislative Counsel's Digest at
http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_1351-1400/ab_1393_bill_20070717_amended_sen_v96.html

Who writes this stuff?

[Gil Aguirre]

Doesn't seem surprising that politicians would gut a bill that is designed to regulate other politicians and bureaucrats.
Neither is it surprising that the courts would have to compel politicians and bureaucrats to simply follow the law. Mr. Prince's comments give a wonderful illustration of how out of touch with the public, city officials really are.

If I understand him correctly...

Public officials "deserve" to be paid a lot more.

The Public sector is more productive than the public sector.

Public officials are motivated by the "health, safety and welfare of the community"

Choice thoughts that could only come from someone within the bureaucratic establishment....unfortunately, it is not the reality often encountered by the average citizen when dealing with government officials.