Otter’s insistence on openness a good start

If Idaho Gov. Butch Otter isn’t careful he’ll have to forfeit his membership in the brotherhood of public officials.

He wandered onto shaky ground this week when he spoke forcefully against a suggestion that certain public land deals in Idaho be conducted less openly. What was he thinking?

A special committee of real estate professionals had offered him a gift, complete with ample political cover.

The committee’s purpose was to recommend ways for the state to handle endowment land transfers while conforming to modern business practices. Among the recommendations: remove the requirement for public auctions and exempt such transactions from the Public Records Act.

What a deal.

Sure you’re taking such transactions behind closed doors, but real estate deals need to occur with a certain confidentiality in order to get the best deal for the public. Besides, government should operate more like a business.

Otter, bless him, wasn’t buying it.

“We have to make sure that there is total and complete transparency,” he said, sounding like he really meant “total” and “complete” in their absolute sense.

He said he’d have a problem with anything that reduced transparency.

Of course, lots of public figures say they believe in transparency. But too many maneuver their way around that commitment, grabbing any convenient rationale, such as the sensitivity of real estate deals or the sanctity of business principles.

Otter’s reluctance to follow that path is refreshing but not unprecedented. When the Idaho Tax Commission was under fire for agency rules that conceal tax advantages provided to out-of-state corporations, Otter ordered that the bills be rewritten to achieve, yes, more transparency.

We don’t want to appear naïve here. Despite his order to the Tax Commission, the desired level of transparency continues to be elusive. And with respect to the latest conversations about endowment land deals, Otter conceded that sometimes information may have to be withheld temporarily, but it would all have to come out eventually.

The people of Idaho need to keep an eye on such matters, including whether Otter lives up to his own principles. For now, his unequivocal statement of commitment to openness is laudable, and it has given Idahoans a standard to which Otter and all other government officials should be held.