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Look who’s talking now
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Posted on Aug 07 2008
I find the situation described in the Monday, Aug. 4, article “Measure seeks penalty for ignoring lawmakers’ public records requests” not only interesting but sad.
The situation is interesting in that a member of the Legislature is sponsoring a bill to require government employees to comply with requests for public records by members of the Legislature within 10 days of a written request. Failure to comply will leave the employee at risk to be charged with contempt.
What’s wrong with this bill? Nothing really. Look who’s sponsoring it, though. This is the same body that exempted itself from the Open Government Act. Just what are we saying? This is sad to say the least.
This is a good example of why we are in such a mess. The proper thing to do is to make the Open Government Act applicable to the Legislature. The only reason I can find for their opposition to the applicability of the Open Government Act is that they will have to then reveal how the $150,000 that each legislator receives spends it. Right now, there is no accountability and the money can be spent in the way they see fit, including on personal matters.
Is this what we want? I do not think so. We must change.
[B]Efrain F. Camacho[/B] [I]Navy Hill, Saipan [/I]
