Wayne Hoffman of Idaho Freedom Foundation columnizes that a 2015 bill that you haven't heard of has made Idaho's collective bargaining law the best of its kind in the nation:
Here’s another extraordinary bill that passed this last legislative session that you haven’t heard about: House Bill 167 stops cities and labor unions from negotiating contracts in secret. The bill passed the House and Senate unanimously and was signed by Gov. Butch Otter. When the open meeting law was passed in 1974, it included a provision allowing closed meetings, called executive sessions, for a number of purposes including real estate purchases, discussions about lawsuits and to review records exempt from public disclosure. The author of the open meeting law, then-Rep. Gary Ingram, told me a few years ago that inclusion of closed-door labor negotiations was intended to secure passage of the bill; without it, the measure might have failed and all government boards would be allowed to continue to meet in secret whenever and wherever. Ingram always had misgivings about the secret collective bargaining provision, however it has endured now more than 40 years/Wayne Hoffman, Idaho Freedom Foundation. More here.
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.
167 stops cities and labor unions from negotiating contracts in secret. The bill passed the House and Senate unanimously and was signed by Gov. Butch Otter. When the open meeting law was passed in 1974, it included a provision allowing closed meetings, called executive sessions, for a number of purposes including real estate purchases, discussions about lawsuits and to review records exempt from public disclosure. The author of the open meeting law, then-Rep. Gary Ingram, told me a few years ago that inclusion of closed-door labor negotiations was intended to secure passage of the bill; without it, the measure might have failed and all government boards would be allowed to continue to meet in secret whenever and wherever. Ingram always had misgivings about the secret collective bargaining provision, however it has endured now more than 40 years/Wayne Hoffman, Idaho Freedom Foundation. More here.
