| I know everyone's excited about primaries right now, but it's time to pause for a WTF moment from Governor Paterson's busy veto pen:
Another bill the governor vetoed would have forced agencies to make relevant documents available to the public three days before open meetings, or as soon as practical. In a written explanation, the governor said the bill would "seriously disrupt the work of boards and commissions in the days immediately preceding an important scheduled meeting."
The bill has long been pushed by Robert Freeman, the director of the Committee on Open Government, which is part of the executive branch but operates somewhat independently.
"We've been proposing this legislation for years and years and years, and all of a sudden it was approved by both houses this year," Mr. Freeman said, adding that he was disappointed by the governor's veto.
"Why should it be difficult to have these records available to the public?" he said. "We're talking about documents that are either accessible to the public under the Freedom of Information Law, or which serve as proposals in the nature of resolutions, laws, rules, regulations, policies or amendments."
I mean, everyone loves to show up at a meeting and have to read through fifty pages of documents during the meeting, right? We all have iPhones for instant quick referencing to related material, right?
It's really hard for me to imagine what on earth the governor thinks he's doing here. If there is a faster way to aggravate people who've pushed for reform at the local level, I'm hard-pressed to find it.
I'm with the Governor on our financial position, but between this and the the veto that lets authorities keep their employees silent (same article, bottom), I'm rapidly losing faith in his wisdom about how government should operate.
Maybe it's time for an "Open Government" fusion party? |
