Otter’s private ceremony draws criticism

BOISE – Gov.-elect C.L. “Butch” Otter’s refusal to allow a public or media representative to attend his swearing-in ceremony may violate the First Amendment, a Boise attorney who specializes in open meetings law said Wednesday.

“I don’t see any grounds for them to do it,” said Allen Derr, a lawyer for the Idaho Press Club. “It may not fit exactly in the open meetings law, but the theory and practice makes it a public event and it should be open to the public – it’s the official assumption of the office.”

On Jan 1, Otter will take his official oath behind closed doors, breaking a tradition of public oaths perhaps for the first time in state history.

On Wednesday, Otter, a former Republican congressman and lieutenant governor, declined a request from the Associated Press to allow one representative from the Idaho media to attend the swearing-in as a public witness.

“It’s not trying to be exclusive. It’s not trying to rope anybody out,” said Jon Hanian, a spokesman for Otter. “That’s just the way he wants it and that’s the way it’s going to be.”

Idaho’s Constitution requires each new governor to take the oath, “beginning on the first Monday in January” after the election. This year, the first Monday falls on New Year’s Day, a government holiday.

On New Year’s Day, the chief justice of state Supreme Court will swear in Otter at the private event for family, friends and some state officials in the governor’s office at the Statehouse, Hanian said.

Following the ceremony, a clerk in Secretary of State Ben Ysursa’s office will certify the oath, officially elevating Otter as Idaho’s 32nd governor.

Ysursa said past governors Phil Batt and Dirk Kempthorne also held small swearing-in ceremonies before larger inauguration celebrations.

“This is not the first time it’s been a holiday,” he said. “It’s not the first time it’s been a small, simple ceremony. Whether it’s closed or not is another story.”

After the late-morning or early afternoon oath ceremony, the governor will fly to Glendale, Ariz., to watch Boise State University play in the Fiesta Bowl.

Otter has scheduled a re-enactment of the swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 5, as part of his public inauguration celebration on the Capitol steps in Boise.

“The governor-elect has said his public display has always been on the front steps,” Hanian said. “Some governors have done it differently, but he doesn’t want to make a big deal out of the procedural swearing-in so all the attention can be focused on the public event.”

Derr said the state-certified oath of office on Jan. 1 holds a different legal definition than the inauguration festivities on Jan. 5. “The public ceremony is fluff. That’s pomp and circumstance,” Derr said. “All public business must be conducted in public and (the oath) is public business.”

Outgoing Gov. Jim Risch, who won re-election to his former job as lieutenant governor after a seven-month term in the state’s top slot, will allow media representatives to witness his swearing-in, spokesman Brad Hoaglun said.

Risch will be vacationing at Sun Valley ski resort on Jan. 1. He likely will take his oath with some family members at a mountain condominium.

“Out of 38 years of marriage, 35 have been spent in Sun Valley,” Hoaglun said of Risch and his wife, Vickie. “They’ll have an oath, but hey, if someone from the Ketchum Mountain Express or a local paper wanted to witness it, we’d have no problem with that.”

Otter’s announcement of a private oath ceremony unnerved some historians and political observers. Arthur Hart, former director of the Idaho State Historical Society, told the Lewiston Tribune that Otter may take the first private oath since bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., swore in Idaho’s territorial governors.

Jim Weatherby, an emeritus professor of public policy at Boise State University, said there is an “assumption” that a public representative witnesses the oath.

“As one of the first official acts of the new governor, I would expect him to be more open than he is showing,” Weatherby said. “It does send a message as to how open his administration will be, whether intended or not.”