How Are We Coming With That ‘Transparency Agenda’?

How Are We Coming With That Transparency Agenda?  Yeah, yeah, I’m quoted in the article, but that’s not the point.  While there’s certainly been progress, especially with the imminent passage of the Inspector General bill, and the legislative steps taken to shine a light on double-dippers, we also had a distinct lack of transparency on the passage of the Musk-pass legislation.  We now have the Joint Finance Committee bowing down to the wishes of Christiana Care, apparently with the tacit support of the Governor (I mean, check out his appointees to the Hospital Review Board), and we continue to have a complete lack of transparency on both sides of the ongoing Port Of Wilmington expansion.

You may recall (although you’re not required to) that I posted a list of items for a transparency agenda back in October.  Here it is, replete with numbering mistakes and all.  These, of course, were not just my ideas, but reflected those with similar interests in more transparency in state government.  Including, I might add, the incoming governor.  And he indeed put out an Executive Order ‘Committing To A Good Government That Is Ethical, Transparent, And Effective.

Which is why I’d like to know what, if anything, the Governor has done on the following items on the Transparency Agenda.  I called his office to speak to Myla Miles, was told she was in the Wilmington office that day, called the Wilmington office three times, only to be confronted with a phone that nobody was answering.  Yes, I’ll continue to try.  Oh, those ‘following items’:

4.  Inventory ALL Quasi-Public State Agencies, And Eliminate Their FOIA Exemptions.  By which I mean all agencies created by state government that spend public dollars, but are exempted from FOIA.  We should start by sunsetting John Carney’s secret Business Development scheme whereby millions of dollars are approved in rubber-stamp fashion by a group of insiders with no public deliberation or disclosure required.

8. End ALL Unnecessary Secrecy Engaged In By the Department Of State.  How many failed port deals have Bullock, Carney, et al closed with no public input?  Is there no way to protect Delaware’s corporate status without encouraging world-class criminals to hide assets here?  We’re talking drug money, arms shipments, things that most people consider ‘bad’. I’d like to see the new Governor appoint a working group to seriously determine how to make DOS’ machinations more transparent.

9.  Weaken The Governor’s Absolute Right To ‘Executive Privilege’.  From this WHYY article:

The governor’s office has what the Delaware Attorney General’s Office has recognized in state law as “executive privilege.”

Gov. Carney has used it in the past, for example to redact correspondence regarding the moving of the Rodney Square bus terminal in 2018. The documents were heavily redacted. Delaware Coalition for Open Government spokesman John Flaherty, who requested the emails, appealed the censorship to the AG’s office, but it decided the governor’s emails could stay private.

Meyer said as governor, he would want to give government employees and elected officials space to communicate freely without “everything showing up on the front page in the newspaper.” But he said the public also has the right to know if there are any backdoor deals happening.

“I think there are situations now where the public’s not getting access to information and emails they should have a right to access,” he said.

If elected governor, Meyer said he supports the release of his emails in certain circumstances. However, he would want to protect attorney-client communication, which is a current FOIA exemption.

Carney has perhaps been the most blatant practitioner of hiding stuff from the public.  This needs to be dialed back as much as possible to prevent these backdoor deals from staying hidden.

10.  Roll Back The Number Of FOIA Exemptions Currently Used By State Government. Again, from the WHYY article:

There are 19 exemptions that Delaware government agencies and public entities can use to withhold documents from the public. Those include criminal records, investigative files and autopsy records. That means police reports, inmate causes of death and restitution paid to victims are excluded from public disclosure.

Meyer appears amenable to some trimming down of the exemptions:

Meyer said he would direct his administration to review the exemptions to make sure they’re not being misused.

“I can think of situations where we would want some FOIA protections, or for situations under investigation,” he said. “But I think it’s being too often used today to withhold information that the public has a right to know.”

As Sarah Mueller points out in her article:

Lawmakers have also introduced a slate of five bills aimed at increasing school board transparency:

• House Bill 33 would mandate school boards offer remote attendance options to school board members who are dealing with issues like illness, military deployment or pregnancy.
• House Bill 82 would set residency requirements to serve on school boards.
• House Bill 64 would require school boards to provide a remote option for the public to view and comment during public meetings remotely.
• House Bill 85 would require school board members undergo background checks.
• House Bill 78 would have all school boards receive training on good government topics like, FOIA, rules for conducting meetings and codes of conduct.

All of the measures except the last one have passed the House and are waiting for a floor vote in the Senate.

So, that’s where we are.  I will note that we probably wouldn’t have gotten nearly this far without the State Auditor’s Report On Double-Dipping.  Left to their own devices (and the double-dippers who are/were also elected officials), these reforms likely never would have happened.

I hope the Governor steps up and fulfills his stated objective to make government more ethical, transparent, and effective.  I’ll keep calling.  Hopefully, someone will answer.