Archives for January 2006

From The Associated Press

By CHRISTOPHER SMITH
Associated Press Writer

BOISE, Idaho (AP) – If the Idaho Supreme Court agrees with a district judge that the state constitution does not require public access to legislative committee meetings, citizens will be shut out of the fundamental business of democracy, a lawyer for the Idaho Press Club argued before the high court.

“The framers (of the constitution) took openness very seriously,” attorney Debora Kristensen said Monday in asking the justices to overturn a lower court ruling that found the Idaho Constitution requires only the floor sessions of the state Senate and House need be open to the public while committee meetings _ where lawmakers hear from witnesses and discuss pending legislation in detail _ can be closed at any time for any reason.

“The only place in the current legislative process where the public has the ability to instruct their legislators in their business is in committee,” said Kristensen.
But the attorney representing lawmakers maintained that, like a judge closing sensitive court proceedings, the Idaho Legislature has a right and need to close committee meetings when it chooses.

And such occasions have been rare, said Deputy Attorney General James Carlson.
“We don’t have abuse of this authority whatsoever,” said Carlson, noting that the appeal focused on just seven committee meetings that were closed, compared to thousands that were conducted openly. Lawmakers had good reason to go behind closed doors in such instances when they were discussing potential terrorist attacks on Idaho water supplies or settlement of a long-standing water rights dispute with the Nez Perce Tribe, he said.
“The Legislature understands and respects public involvement,” Carlson said. “I would submit those (closures) are a prudent use of executive committee to discuss sensitive subjects.”

The Press Club sued the Legislature in 2003 for closing meetings of official committees, arguing that the state constitution requires the “business of each house” must be conducted “openly, and not in secret session.” But in successive rulings, 4th District Judge Kathryn Sticklen of Boise determined the framers of the Idaho Constitution intended only the general sessions of the House and Senate always to be open, not the committee hearings.

Her rulings rely on another constitutional provision that says a quorum must be present before the Legislature can conduct business.

Kristensen pointed to the transcripts of the Idaho Constitutional Convention debates of 1889 and 1890 where delegates proclaimed their intent to have all business of the Legislature open to the public, adding “it doesn’t say when only a quorum is present.”
Republican legislative leaders have argued that closed-door committee meetings are sometimes critical to the legislative process so that lawmakers may openly discuss ideas or proposals, or consider issues of security, litigation and state employee discipline.

Minority Democrats have sided with the Idaho Press Club in the case and criticized GOP leadership for the secrecy policy. But they have balked at signing onto a Republican proposal for a “limited closure” rule that would keep meetings open except in extraordinary circumstances, with Democratic leaders saying they prefer to wait for the Supreme Court to rule in the appeal before deciding whether to support any limited closure rule.

Chief Justice Gerald Schroeder gave no indication whether the high court would rule before the current session of the Legislature _ which opened Monday _ adjourns in late March or early April. He ended Monday’s hearing by saying the justices would issue a decision “in due course.”
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On the Net: Idaho Supreme Court Oral Arguments Audio https://www.isc.idaho.gov/audio.htm

From The Associated Press

From The Spokesman-Review

State agriculture officials met with seed companies

James Hagengruber, Staff writer, January 5, 2006

Idaho’s open meeting law was violated when state officials held two days of meetings with grass seed company officials without notifying the public, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by a public health group that’s been pushing for an end to field burning in North Idaho.

The group, Safe Air For Everyone, or SAFE, learned of the December meetings through documents obtained in a request of records and correspondence from the Idaho Department of Agriculture. Decisions on field burning management were made at the sessions, which were held at a hotel in Moscow, Idaho, and neither publicized nor opened to residents, according to a copy of the complaint filed in Idaho’s 4th District Court in Boise.

Patti Gora, executive director of SAFE, believes the meetings are part of a trend toward increased secrecy of state business and are evidence of preference shown to grass growers. “We were shocked,” she said. “We’re appalled at the arrogance of those who are entrusted with guarding public health.”

The complaint was filed Wednesday. SAFE wants the meetings to be declared null and void and each of the six Agriculture Department employees in attendance fined the maximum $150.

Mike Everett, deputy director of the state’s Department of Agriculture, said he was aware of the suit but had not yet reviewed the eight-page document. He would only say that state employees take the open meetings law “very seriously.”

Apart from the lawsuit, Gora said her group has obtained e-mail records that she said are evidence of state employees “mocking” public health advocates. Copies of the e-mails were distributed to the media Wednesday. In an e-mail that Gora said caused particular offense, the state’s burning program manager suggested gathering after the sessions to toast a departing air quality program employee with flaming cocktails. In another e-mail, the same state employee mentioned post-meeting talks ” ‘where we discuss food, drink and/or the meaning of smoke (I burn, therefore I am…?).’ ”

The Idaho Department of Agriculture employee accused of sending the e-mails, Sherm Takatori, refused to comment and referred all questions to the Idaho attorney general’s office.

The lawsuit, however, is only concerned with what happened during the actual meetings. Minutes obtained by SAFE show 19 state, federal and tribal officials attended the sessions. Three representatives from seed companies were also present. Much of the discussion was a recap of the 2005 burning season, which saw a 25 percent increase in fields burned over the previous year on the Rathdrum Prairie and Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation.

Session attendees also noted an increase in the number of public complaints over smoke. Public health advocates have long fought the annual harvest-time practice of burning grass stubble, saying it causes respiratory trauma to thousands of residents in North Idaho and Eastern Washington. The practice is banned in Washington. At least 500 doctors across the region have signed a petition calling for an end to the practice in Idaho.

Bluegrass farmers say burning is the fastest, cheapest method of removing crop stubble. Torching the fields also reduces the need for chemical weed killers on the Rathdrum Prairie, which sits atop the region’s aquifer. The grass seed grown in these fields is used across the nation in lawns and golf courses.

Although field burning increased statewide this year – thanks largely to higher fuel costs that made it more expensive to plow and prepare a field with a tractor – the practice is rapidly dwindling on the Rathdrum Prairie. The flat, fertile ground north of Post Falls was once a carpet of green each summer and the origin of many complaints about field burning. Many of the fields are now subdivisions.

Thousands of acres of grass fields continue to be cultivated and burned south of Coeur d’Alene. State officials worry that growth will only increase pressure to end the practice, according to minutes from the December meeting in Moscow. Many new residents “will not understand the need for field burning and will need information on the process. This will be a challenge in future years.”

Officials at the meeting also decided to boost the maximum allowable number of acres burned each day during next year’s season, according to the lawsuit. This is a policy decision that demands public input, Gora said.

“If the state is serious about protecting public health, then it has to include the public,” Gora said. “They don’t even return our calls.”

From The Spokesman-Review

From the Associated Press

By CHRISTOPHER SMITH, Associated Press Writer

BOISE, Idaho (AP) – Environmental, civil rights and voter education groups are joining the legal fight of an Idaho media club asking the state Supreme Court to stop lawmakers from closing legislative meetings to the public.

The Idaho Supreme Court has granted a request by the Idaho Conservation League, the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho Foundation and the League of Women Voters of Idaho to submit arguments in support of the Idaho Press Club’s appeal of a district judge’s ruling that found the Idaho Legislature can close committee meetings whenever lawmakers choose to go into secret session.

“All three of these organizations represent a group of Idaho citizens who are concerned about their ability to actively participate in the legislative process if the business of the Legislature is done in closed committee meetings,” said Sara Shepard, a Boise attorney who is representing the three organizations as “friends of the court” in the case.

The state’s high court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the appeal Monday, the opening day of the 2006 Idaho Legislature. The Supreme Court order allowing the three groups to submit arguments in support of the Idaho Press Club position was granted Friday.

The Press Club sued the Legislature in 2003 for closing meetings of official committees, arguing that the state Constitution requires that all business of the lawmaking body must be conducted “openly, and not in secret session.” But in successive rulings, 4th District Judge Kathryn Sticklen determined the framers of the Idaho Constitution intended only the general sessions of the House and Senate always to be open, not the committee hearings.

The groups challenge that conclusion in briefs filed with the Supreme Court, noting that records of the debate during the Idaho Constitutional Convention of 1889 and 1890 show that delegates intended that all deliberations undertaken by state legislators _ not just the debates on the floor _ were to be conducted in public.

“I want the electric light of publicity turned upon everything the Legislature has to do in our halls,” Alan Parker, the delegate who proposed the open meetings language at the constitutional convention, was recorded as saying in the record of the official proceedings.

The groups note in court documents that open government was such a priority with the framers that they hired professional stenographers from Denver to record verbatim the entire debates of the Idaho Constitutional Convention.

Between 1990 and 2003, legislative analysts say only one of thousands of committee hearings was closed to the public. But in 2003 six committee meetings were held secretly, prompting the media group’s lawsuit.

As lawmakers negotiated a contentious water rights settlement with the Nez Perce Tribe in the 2004 session, other meetings were also held behind closed doors. No meetings were closed last year, but the Senate voted in February for rule changes allowing committees to close hearings for any reason as long as two-thirds of their members voted in support.

Republican legislative leaders have argued that closed-door committee meetings are sometimes necessary for lawmakers to openly discuss ideas or proposals, or to consider issues of security, litigation and state employee discipline.

Minority Democrats have chastised the GOP leadership for the secrecy policy, and have balked at signing onto a Republican proposal for a “limited closure” rule that would keep meetings open except in extraordinary circumstances.

Democratic leaders have said they prefer to wait for the Supreme Court to rule in the Idaho Press Club appeal before deciding whether to support any limited closure rule.

Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming are the only Western states where legislative committees can cite any reason to close hearings to the public.

Montana, Oregon and Washington require legislative committee hearings always to be open, while Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah allow committees to close hearings only for specified extraordinary reasons.

From the Associated Press