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Bill that would remove the legislature from open-meeting laws cheats the public

Bill that would remove the legislature from open-meeting laws cheats the public

Date published: 2/2/2004

By DICK HAMMERSTROM

A LEADER in the Virginia General Assembly thinks that open government is neat as long as it does not apply to him and his legislative buddies.

At least that's what House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith seems to be saying in a bill he introduced that would exempt legislators from all open-meeting laws in the state's Freedom of Information Act.

Griffith, R-Salem, sought the legislation after Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, a fellow Republican, issued an opinion that the legislature's partisan caucuses violate the Freedom of Information Act by meeting behind closed doors if legislative votes are discussed.

Griffith's bill would authorize the assembly's Joint Rules Committee to say which meetings can be open and closed. That essentially means that the majority party can close anything it wishes. It is an invitation to mischief.

Kilgore holds that any meeting of three or more legislators must be open to the public if the lawmakers discuss "expected votes on matters pending before the General Assembly." He notes that many informal gatherings "fall into a gray area."

Griffith says such legislation is needed because party members have to be able to meet in private and that the current law--based on Kilgore's opinion--does not work in the citizen-legislator atmosphere in Richmond.

"I don't see a need for us to have constant question marks of what's in the gray area and constant question marks about whether an individual or an organization is going to file suit," Griffith says.

What he does not say publicly is that party members should be able to meet away from the public--and the Democrats--and plot legislative strategy.

Griffith's bill is producing strong opposition from open-government and media advocates.

"I believe this bill would wrongly exempt the General Assembly from its own Freedom of Information Act," said Forrest "Frosty" Landon, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government.

Griffith seems to foresee doom and gloom and the end of the legislature's ability to govern if lawmakers can't meet privately.

"I do not believe that we can continue as a part-time legislature if we are ever put in a place where three members cannot get together and discuss the policies of the commonwealth," Griffith argues. "I don't think it was ever intended for the Freedom of Information Act to apply to those situations."

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Date published: 2/2/2004