In government we trust?

How much do you trust the government to police itself?

This last election cycle, transparency was a big talking point for everyone from the gubernatorial candidates down to municipal positions. Upon being elected, Governor Mark Gordon even organized a transparency committee to find ways that the State of Wyoming could be more open and available to constituents and taxpayers.

When the 65th Wyoming Legislature convened, however, three bills aimed at limiting transparency were introduced. These bills, in one way or another, attempted to limit either how much information was put out in the public notices published in newspapers or attempted to prevent newspapers from publishing those public notices all together.

House Bills (HB) 146, 201 and 242 have all died in the legislature and, hopefully, will not be resurrected in upcoming sessions. The Saratoga Sun, however, feels that is our duty to inform our readers of how members of the Wyoming Legislature attempted to limit access to information that should remain published for easy public consumption.

HB146

Status: Failed in Committee on the Whole 27-29-4

HB146, also known as “local government publication requirements,” was sponsored by Representatives Landon Brown (R-Cheyenne), Cathy Connolly (D-Laramie), Jamie Flitner (R-Greybull) and Mark Kinner (R-Sheridan) along with Senators Stephan Pappas (R-Cheyenne) and Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie).

The proposed bill would have amended Wyoming State Statutes that require cities, towns and county government to publish the name, position and gross monthly salary of each full-time employee and elected official.

Were HB146 to pass, the changes would allow cities and towns as well as county government to publish the gross monthly salary and position of full-time employees and elected officials while excluding their names from the public notice.

This bill, specifically, goes against the desire that has been expressed by Governor Gordon and other legislators following the lawsuit filed by Open the Books against the State Auditor’s office. The lawsuit helped demonstrate that citizens not only should know, but definitely want to know what is being paid for government positions and who is receiving the money.

In terms of the vote on the local level, Representative Donald Burkhart (R-Rawlins) voted against HB146 and Representative Jerry Paxton (R-Encampment) voted in favor of the bill.

HB201

Status: postponed indefinitely

Also known as “cities and counties-publication of notices,” HB201 was sponsored by Representatives Donald Burkhart (R-Rawlins) and Dan Zwonitzer (R-Cheyenne) and Senators Bill Landen (R-Casper), Tara Nethercott (R-Cheyenne) and Wendy Schuler (R-Evanston).

Currently, municipal governments are required to publish the minutes of regular and special meetings, proposed ordinances, and receipts and expenditures in their local newspaper — if there is a local newspaper to publish these notices. This also requires the municipal governments to designate a newspaper.

County governments are also currently required to publish the minutes of regular and special meetings, as well as the names, salaries and wages of public officials and employees. They are also required to publish matters of public record and payments made. Due to this, county governments are also required to designate a newspaper that will publish the legal notices.

HB201 proposed to allow both municipal and county governments to bypass publishing legal notices in the newspaper. Instead, it would have given local governments the ability to publish these notices on their websites as an alternative to the newspaper. This presents, or presented, a handful of problems.

For starters, many local government websites are not used or read nearly as much as local newspapers. For over a century, the people of Wyoming have known that the legal notices from their municipal and county governments can be found in the pages of their local newspaper. The people of Saratoga, for example, know that the minutes and financials for the Town of Saratoga will be published in the Saratoga Sun.

Another problem that would have arisen from the passage of this bill is that many government websites are not easy to navigate nor are they updated on a regular basis. Take, for example, the government website for Carbon County.

The home page of the official website for Carbon County boasts that it will post live recordings of Board of Carbon County Commissioner meetings, but adds that recordings of the most recent meetings will not be available for up to five business days. Those numbers have been seen to bloat to weeks before the recording will appear.

While HB201 was touted as a cost-saving measure, a budget spreadsheet made available from the Wyoming Association of Municipalities shows that publication of notices in newspapers is a small fraction of a local government’s budget. Additionally, if HB201 were to pass, many municipalities and county governments would have had to spend more money to hire the people needed to ensure that these websites were updated on a timely manner.

Finally, increased security would need to be invested by local governments to ensure that their public notices weren’t altered. As it currently stands, these public notices are published in newspapers and are unable to be tampered with and are kept in multiple physical locations; museums, libraries, archives, schools and the newspapers themselves.

While this bill has been “postponed indefinitely,” there is no guarantee that it won’t reappear in future sessions of the legislature.

HB242

Status: postponed indefinitely

A bill to establish a statewide official notices website was sponsored by Representative Bunky Loucks (R-Casper) and Senator Tara Nethercott (R-Cheyenne). HB242 would have required that statewide legal notices be published on the official notices website rather than in a newspaper.

Under HB242, the Secretary of State would have been tasked with creating and administering the website and would allow for the publication of legal notices from the state level down to the county and municipal level.

Essentially, the reasons that HB146 and HB201 couldn’t work are exactly why HB242 couldn’t work. While the fiscal note for the bill appropriates $14,500 for the Secretary of State’s office to establish the website, there would have been future expenses for website security to ensure that the legal notices couldn’t be tampered with.

This also brings back the issue of the State Auditor’s office and the lawsuit filed by Open the Books, in which former State Auditor Cynthia Cloud informed transparency advocates that it would take approximately 20 years to release five years of finances due to limited staff and resources.

If the state government, and local governments, do not have the staff on hand to comply with public records requests in a timely fashion, how can they ensure that legal notices and public information are consistently and accurately published on their websites?

A common phrase used in regards to government and power is “Who watches the watchers?” Newspapers have been, and continue to be, the sentinels that ensure that all levels of government are held accountable and answer to the people.

In fact, a 2018 study from Notre Dame’s Medoza College of Business showed a direct line between the loss of local newspapers and the rise of government spending. When legal notices aren’t published, or there is not a local newspaper to publish them in, the amount of money spent on salaries, bids, insurance and staffing all increase.

How Can You Help?

If you, like us, would like to keep seeing public notices published where they cannot be changed or replaced at the whim of those who they affect, we urge you to contact your local state representatives (contact info is listed below) and let them know that transparency, accountability and ease of accessibility are important to you.

The question still remains: how much do you trust the government to police itself?

Your local

state representatives

Senator Larry Hicks

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 307-383-7192

Rep. Jerry Paxton

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 307-327-5373

Rep. Donald Burkhart

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 307-321-7074