Secret Meetings For Public Decisions

Who’s in charge of Washington state government? The newly elected legislators, soon to unpack their bags in Olympia? The voters who sent them there?

Neither. The real power increasingly has belonged to (A.) Olympia’s permanent residents - agency budget and regulation writers. And (B.) to a handful of legislative and executive power brokers who write the final version of key bills behind closed doors, then ram them through the Legislature just before adjournment.

Next week, a transformed Legislature will convene amid high expectations.

One of their first acts, Republican leaders say, will be to signal agency regulation writers that agencies no longer make policy - the Legislature writes the laws. Teen work rules, an example of nanny government at its worst, will be up for deserved rescission.

Another early decision is even more crucial: Leaders may change the Legislature’s rules. These rules have disenfranchised all but a handful of legislators.

The rules govern conference committees. These six-member panels decide the final content of controversial bills. They epitomize abused power. They meet in secret. And in recent years they have excluded dissident committee members from participation.

If these rules stand, most legislators might as well stay home. Furthermore they all can count on another ugly encounter with the voters.

You can’t reinvent or downsize government when government employees and old-line pols hog the crucial decisions. Nor can a government that hides its most important decisions ever regain the public’s trust.

In most states, legislative conference committees deliberate in public. Some Olympia power brokers claim they couldn’t make deals or speak frankly in public. But their counterparts in other states find a way. Ideas not worthy of the light aren’t worthy, period.

Republican Clyde Ballard, soon to be Speaker of the House, says he wants to open the process to public view and to participation by members of the minority party.

Ballard also leads the move to put a leash on agency regulation writers.

His efforts are a recipe for better government and better politics. Credible government does not centralize power, it broadens participation. It is open about its reasoning, its deals, its decisions. Closed government breeds flawed legislation, abusive power games, and voter wrath. As we have learned … haven’t we, Democrats?

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board