Spitzer: Gov't Secrecy a "Bad Thing"

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Picayune Sunny Times

Updated July 21 5 PM, MST

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) –After delivering a speech Tuesday where he mocked his spiffy new cowboy boots, vowed to make his home state “better” and drew cheers from about 125 supporters, prominent western Democrats and many resettled New Yorkers, NYS Attorney General Eliot Spitzer stepped outside the tent of his mountain valley fund-raiser for his New York gubernatorial bid to discuss Wyoming’s newly legislated secrecy laws.

This winter, Wyoming’s legislature passed a bill making communications, including memos and e-mails, between a legislator and their staff in a non-public setting confidential and off the public record.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D-WY) vetoed it, but legislators in both houses rallied a two-thirds vote to kill the veto.

Assessing Wyoming in an on-line report this spring, The Center for Public Integrity, a Beltway-based society of professional journalists, ranked the Cowboy state 45th in the nation for making basic information on state legislators’ income, assets and potential conflicts of interest available to the public.

Out of 100 points for good governance, Wyoming received 40, according to C.P.I.’s report.

Defending passage of the "Privileged Communications" bill on his Planet Jackson Hole Web log, state Rep. Keith Gingery (R-Dubois/Jackson) reportedly wrote: “This is an issue of checks and balances between the branches of government. If the Legislature has to turn over all scribbly notes and drafts, then it would be only fair that the governor turn over all of his notes and the chief justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court turn over his drafts to opinions.”

Opposing legislators in a March press release, Freudenthal said: “The lobbyists and the others will retain their access, but the average citizen will not be able to know what is going on. Unfortunately, the Legislature decided that, as an institution, they wanted to retain the capacity to be a privileged class of elected officials. This is really about their desire to remain less than transparent to the average citizen."

Asked about Wyoming receiving an “F” for governance from a national watchdog group this year, Spitzer said that he did not know the particulars of the Wyoming law, and as a prosecutor he knew better than to presume facts before stating them.

"Clearly, the theoretical issues you’re talking about are enormously important, Spitzer said. "Conflicts of interest that underlie decisions when those conflicts aren’t disclosed and when the public can't evaluate what might motivate people, and the decisions they’re making, can lead…to a governance structure that is improper and unfair and doesn’t reflect the public interest. Secrecy is also a bad thing,” he added.

Spitzer qualified his remarks by saying there are moments in negotiations between government and the private sector when involved parties desire secrecy for sound reasons.

“Not every fact in a negotiation can be made public at the first moment,” he said. “But, there should be access, there should be transparency and openness about the way government operates.”

In the absence of openness in government, said Spitzer: “You don’t know what deals are being cut and why. And so transparency is an important issue that we should strive for.”

Between gesturing expressively, apologizing for being from "the Bronx" and naive to such western traditions as trick horse shows, which he called "horse fighting," Spitzer joked about his pristine calf-skin boots and blamed his wife, Silda, for making him wear them upon arriving at their Jackon Hole hotel.

Spitzer told his eager supporters--some of whom, said Wyoming Democratic Chairman Mike Gierau, gave at least $1,000--that despite his solid lead in most polls over his Long Island rival, Dem. Thomas Suzzi, going into a prevent defense was not in his nature.

“But I’m going to keep going out there and talking,” Spitzer said. “Which means the greatest risk I face is saying something that people won’t like. But I’m going to keep doing it, because that’s the way I believe in campaigning.”

(Photo Credits: NYS Attorney General E.Spitzer; courtsey of IMG: @ www.msnbc.msn.com; WY state Rep. K.Gingery, courtsey of www.legisweb.state.wy.us/2006/members/GINGERY.jpg; WY Gov. D. Freudenthal; courtsey of www.willienelson.com/pppics/gov.jpg)