JENNIFER BYRD and BEN NEARY Associated Press Writer | Posted: Friday, March 10, 2006 12:00 am
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - The Wyoming State Senate voted 29-1 Friday morning to override Gov. Dave Freudenthal's veto of a bill that would establish that legislators' communications with staff, constituents and contractors are confidential.
The vote was not unexpected - the Senate initially approved the bill 30-0. The matter now goes to the House, where the vote was expected to be closer. The House initially passed the measure 36-22 with two members absent; a total of 40 votes would be needed to override Freudenthal's veto.
In a letter Thursday to Senate President Grant Larson, Freudenthal said the measure "creates curtains of secrecy at the expense of the average citizen."
But senators rejected that premise; Sen. Phil Nicholas said other branches of government already have confidentiality with their staffs.
"No one would ever think about going over to the Supreme Court and say, 'We want all your drafts, every one of them,"' Nicholas said. He said that the executive branch likewise wouldn't be able to function if it had to turn over all its draft materials.
Sen. Tex Boggs, D-Rock Springs, said a committee that drafted legislation for the Hathaway Scholarship program last year was praised for its openness, but kept early drafts of the legislation confidential because they needed work.
Sen. Bob Peck, R-Riverton, a newspaper publisher, said he was embarrassed for some in his profession who have, "couched this in sinister words, who are suggesting that we are doing something shadowy."
Sen. Bill Vasey, D-Rawlins, cast the lone dissenting vote against overriding the governor's veto. He said all his constituents know where he's from and what his shortcomings are.
"My political career is probably on the downhill side," Vasey said. "But as I end it, I would hate to think I kept a secret from them."
Prospects for an override were uncertain in the House.
Rep. John Hastert, D-Green River, voted against the bill because he thought it was "too broad."
"It was a real tough call for me," he said. "I supported pieces but ended up backing away from it."
He said he probably would stick with his original vote and not vote to override.
But Rep. Frank Philp, R-Shoshoni, said he thought it was important for lawmakers to keep their initial brainstorming about a bill from the public.
"You know how it is in your personal life, when you brainstorm, a lot of the ideas you discard," Philp said. "And it's nobody else's business what you thought of through that process."
Philp said being forced to release information too early in the legislative process would hamper innovation by lawmakers.
But Freudenthal disagreed with that line of thinking, saying current law requires lawmakers to operate in an open manner. The assumption, he said, is that government activities are open to the public except in certain special cases, "when essential functions of government such as law enforcement, protection of individual privacy and other similar interests are at stake."
"This turns that assumption on its head," Freudenthal said. "It says things are secret unless I, as an elected official, decide to waive it."
The governor said he had received several e-mails and calls on the issue and almost all of those asked him to veto the bill.
The Wyoming Press Association and other open records advocates lobbied against the bill.
While Freudenthal said he didn't particularly like coming down on the same side as the press association, he thought a veto of the bill was the right thing to do for Wyoming citizens.
"This is not about the newspapers, the radio stations and the TV stations; this is about the citizens' right to know about the activities of their government," he said.