Ron Keefover: Let the sunshine in Kansas government

Kansas media representatives who track open-government legislation could describe their job as Whac-A-Mole. This year is no different.

Currently, organizations representing cities, counties and other governmental entities are pushing to end the practice of publicizing their legally required notices, including budgets, in print, opting instead to restrict them to websites, particularly if the website is operated by the very entity charged with making its work available to the general public.

On another front, the current gubernatorial administration has taken the position that government business may be discussed – transacted? – in secrecy via e-mail if it transpired using a private Internet service provider. Object lesson: accomplish the deed by Gmail, making sure only the agency “good news” is transmitted through government e-mail accounts.

Case in point: an e-mail detailing what should be the most public of any public document, the state budget director’s proposal to close budget shortfalls totaling more than $710 million. It was secretly e-mailed to two lobbyist confidants before being unveiled even to the Legislature, let alone Kansans.

Adding salt to the wound is news that The Eagle, which broke the budget proposal story, was advised that a request to the governor’s office for access to e-mails between that office and one of the lobbyists would cost $1,235.

So, if one as a government official needs to accomplish a deed in secret, do so on a home computer using a private e-mail account. But if that isn’t possible, make the cost of accessing the public record prohibitively high for most citizens.

That same secretive mindset has now been extended to state judiciary appointments, which had been transparent by Supreme Court rule since 1981. Now, no one knows who applied for a judge vacancy, only whom the governor appointed.

Secrecy in government is not the exclusive domain of the executive and legislative branches of government, however, as an ongoing case study at the University of Kansas demonstrates. There, a student group seeks to determine the extent of the influence the Charles and David Koch foundations may have in donations totaling at least $1.4 million to the KU School of Business. The students’ records request for any restrictions on Koch funding was approved by the university – but with a price tag of $1,800.

So what does secrecy in government mean to us as citizens? Last year, legislators needed only to hear from a Leawood couple to learn what a travesty secret records could unleash. That case involved an innocent family whose personal nightmare began when a totally unfounded drug raid was promulgated on their suburban Johnson County home. Despite the horrors of the morning raid, to the couple’s dismay, they found that the information on which the bogus raid was based was secret per a 1979 law. Though the record detailing probable cause for the search – or in this case, lack of probable cause – could have been opened, it was kept secret.

Given the baseless grounds for the drug raid in the first place, it is unsurprising that someone wanted to keep the family in the dark to protect an exposed backside. Thanks to efforts by the couple and other proponents of open government, the affidavit for the search warrant eventually was opened to the couple, and legislation opening future affidavits in searches and arrests has been enacted to bring a little additional sunshine into Kansas government.

Kansans fear and mistrust the unknown. We must, in fact and in deed, let the sunshine in.

This story was originally published March 21, 2015 at 7:01 PM with the headline "Ron Keefover: Let the sunshine in Kansas government."