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TRANSPARENT AS DIRT
Politicians will say things that they know
they don't mean at all. At the state level,
whenever you hear a politician utter the word
"transparency," you can be sure that he or
she is opposed to any kind of transparency or
openness in government.
I remember that when he was first elected
governor, Sonny Perdue claimed that trans
parency was one of the greatest virtues an
officeholder could have. He didn't really mean
it. Perdue, among other things, signed a bill
that gave himself a $100,000 tax break with
out ever disclosing it publicly. (It wasn't until
two years after he signed it that a newspaper
reporter finally broke the story about the
governor's generosity.)
Perdue also signed several other
bills that closed off various types
of information contained in state
and local government records to
public view.
House Speaker David Ralston
has also paid public tribute to
the concept of transparency. In
the bill he pushed through a couple
of years ago to revise Georgia's eth
ics laws, he even changed the official
name of the State Ethics Commission to the
clunkier "Georgia Government Transparency
and Campaign Finance Commission." Ralston
didn't care much about "government transpar
ency" either, as we soon discovered.
Over the past few years, Georgia lawmak
ers have made a series of severe cutbacks in
funding for the commission that is supposed
to enforce government transparency, requiring
the agency to reduce its staff from 26 to nine
people.
At the same time, legislators have amended
the campaign disclosure laws so that more
administrative paperwork requirements have
been imposed on the few remaining staffers
who have not been laid off.
The result is that the people still working
for the ethics commission have very little time
or resources to investigate complaints that
candidates are violating campaign finance
laws. This ensures that there will be less
transparency regarding the way politicians
raise and spend money during an election
campaign.
The "government transparency" commis
sion hit its lowest point recently when the
director, Stacey Kalberman, and her deputy
director attempted to investigate complaints
filed against Gov. Nathan Deal concerning his
campaign for governor last year. Kalberman
asked the commission members for the go-
ahead to issue subpoenas for information
related to their review of Deal's campaign
records. She could not get any of them to sign
off on the subpoenas. Shortly afterward,
commission members decided that
because of "budget problems" they
would unfortunately have to elimi
nate the jobs or cut the pay of
Kalberman and the deputy direc
tor. (Kalberman eventually agreed
to resign.)
In a government memo that
was transparently disclosed,
Kalberman wrote to the commis
sion chairman: "I do not believe it.
to be a coincidence that your increased
concern with the budget coincides with my
staff's preparation and delivery to you for your
signatures subpoenas related to the ongoing
Nathan Deal investigation."
Kalberman is accurate in that assessment.
All state agencies have seen their budgets
reduced since 2008, but the sudden timing of
this budget cutback at the commission whose
function is to provide "government transpar
ency" is highly suspect.
It should not have been a surprise, how
ever. Georgia politicians may tell you that they
are all in favor of transparency in government,
but they don't really mean it.
Tom Crawford tcrawford@gareport.com
Tom Crawford is the editor of The Georgia Report, an
Internet news service at gareport.com that covers
government and politics in Georgia.
THIS MSIIIH WSILI
WELCOME
Yl
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TO THE
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WAIVERS ON TOUR WAT IN.
6 FLAGPOIE.COM -JUNE 22, 2011
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