The original
intent of our open meeting law is clearly stated in the Alaska
Statutes:
“The people of this state do not yield
their sovereignty to the agencies that serve them;
the people, in delegating authority, do
not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for
the people to know and what is not good for them to know;
the people's right to remain informed
shall be protected so that they may retain control over the
instruments they have created.”
In 1994, the
Alaskan Legislature voted to exempt themselves from those powerful
words quoted above. Does this mean the public no longer wishes to
control “the instrument we created” or that we have “yielded our
sovereignty to the agencies that are supposed to serve us”?
By exempting themselves from provisions of the open meeting
statutes, our legislators made a conscious decision to restrict what
the public should know. What is the legislature hiding behind their
closed doors? Have partisan politics or special interest lobbyists
somehow seduced our legislators into believing they are better than
the citizens who elect them?
Our right to be fully informed should not be infringed upon. The
public should pry those caucus doors open, so our business can be
conducted in the light of day. Once reopened, we should never let
the doors be closed again!
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