From the Hendersonville Times-News (2/10/09): In a year when a lack of money should restrain the Legislature from costly projects, lawmakers should focus on a few projects that are cheap (even free) and achievable.
First up among the doable projects is the so-called automatic recovery bill that would help keep government honest.
Under the bill, winners of lawsuits over public records would recover attorney fees from the government bodies they successfully sued. Currently granting of attorney fees is discretionary.
The bill would require judges to award the attorney fees to successful plaintiffs. Such a threat, the state’s newspapers and many government watchdog groups say, would make government agencies think twice about withholding public records and would even the playing field for newspapers and private citizens against the deep pockets of government lawyers.
The bill passed unanimously last year in the Senate, then was blocked by House Speaker Joe Hackney. Hackney’s spokesman said he’s willing to take another look. “He just wants to make sure the fees are reasonable,” Hackney spokesman Bill Holmes said. “There’s no other area of law in North Carolina that allows for automatic recovery of fees.”
A second area also comes under open government, and is another piece of our longtime crusade for open government in a state that is woefully closed.
The Legislature should open up personnel records of public employees.
Other states like Ohio and Florida allow the public to see personnel files of public employees. Neither state reports any problems recruiting or keeping people because they don’t want their personnel file disclosed, yet that’s one of the arguments advanced here in favor of keeping personnel records secret.
Once again, the deficient and anti-public nature of North Carolina’s law is being exposed right here in the mountains.
The city manager of Brevard just suspended the police chief last week. No information on why. No access to personnel records. No access to any paperwork regarding the chief’s performance. Absurd.
Here’s an easy and free fix legislators can enact that would serve the people, increase accountability and help ensure better performance. They should go for it.
Finally, the Legislature should get its work done within the allotted time and go home on time.
The North Carolina General Assembly has a poor record of finishing its work by the June 30 deadline. This year is a long session, so lawmakers have plenty of time to adopt a budget, the only piece of legislation that has to pass.
It should not take a constitutional amendment to enforce more efficient work habits, but it might. North Carolina is one of only seven states that has no maximum number of weeks to adopt a budget after the governor submits one.
We’re the first to acknowledge that cutting spending is harder than spending money. But the Legislature, especially if it gets nearly $1 billion from the stimulus bill, should be able to finish on time.
The open government improvements would be an added bonus.
Hendersonville Times-News Staff Editorial