Lawmaker pushes transparency bills

BOISE – When state Sen. Gary Schroeder tried to attend a local organization’s meeting in Moscow last year, he was turned away at the door.

No one gave him an explanation, but he has a pretty good idea why it happened.

“I think they mistook me for a reporter,” he said.

The Moscow Republican was carrying a notebook similar to those reporters use.

He’s now sponsoring four bills to strengthen Idaho’s public records and open meetings laws in hopes that others don’t have the same experience he did.

“I think that a couple things should be apparent to everyone and those are that the government belongs to the people, and the people have a right to know what their government’s doing,” Schroeder said.

Senate bills 1286, 1287, 1288 and 1289 aim to improve transparency in government by increasing penalties for open records and meeting law violations, requiring audio recordings of public meetings and redefining a governing body to include committees and commissions of state agencies.

Schroeder is sponsoring the bills for Genesee resident and Latah County GOP Chairman Roger Falen. Schroeder is the party’s county vice chairman.

The two have a back-up plan if the bills don’t pass.

“If we can’t get it through the Legislature, we’ll try taking it to the people,” Falen said.

He is collecting signatures to put the proposal to increase penalties for records and meetings law violations and to redefine a governing body on the November ballot.

If the bills pass, he said he’ll drop the initiative. Until then, he wants all options open.

Falen needs signatures from 47,881 registered voters by May 1 to get the initiative on the ballot, a prospect he said was getting bleaker as the days go by. But if things don’t work out this year, he said he’ll try again next year.

Incidents of Idaho politicians using their offices for personal gain or violating open meetings law inspired him to draft the legislation, Falen said.

“The agencies work for the people,” he said. “They’re not dictators – or shouldn’t be – therefore they don’t have the right to run as more or less a god.”

SB 1286 increases the penalties for records law violations “so they think twice about doing it,” Falen said. A first violation would cost $500, up from $150, and any after that would cost $1,000, up from $300.

SB 1287 does the same for open meetings law penalties and also redefines a governing body to include committees and commissions of any state agency. SB 1288 calls for notice of meetings to be posted on the outside of the original meeting place and for it to include any location changes.

SB 1289 calls for audio recordings of all public meetings to be kept for at least seven years. Rep. Tom Trail, R-Moscow, is co-sponsoring the bill.

“There’s more than one time that we wish we had a tape so we could go back and sort out the truth of what was actually said,” Schroeder said.