And, yes let the sunshine in on our Vocational Rehabilitation agencies, our
Statewide Independent Living Council, our Centers for Independent Living, and
the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in all of its aspects too.
These outlaw agencies in this state hide behind inaccessible documents,
extortionate abuses of FOIA, and secret meetings in documented fashion. And it
has only got worse under the Snyder Administration where consumers of services
are routinely denied those services and even records related to service
delivery and accountability while hacks, mostly non-disabled themselves suck up
the bucks! Without any accountability, scrutiny, or openess. Their certainly
isn’t the consumer control, or citizens with disabilities control over these
predators and their actions. There isn’t even, in most cases basic information.
Joe Harcz
Advocate, Citizen with Disabilities
Putnam: Michigan sunshine laws erode Judy Putnam , Lansing State Journal
LANSING Forty years ago, with the still-fresh taste of disgust left from the
national
Watergate scandal, Michigan lawmakers approved landmark open government laws.
Since that high note in 1976, however, Michigan's record on openness has
slid to the gutter. Sunday is the start of Sunshine Week , a time set aside to
ponder the importance of open government to our democracy. Sadly, Michigan's
recent record is lousy. Back in 1976, young, reform-minded and liberal
lawmakers in Lansing called the "Kiddie Caucus," pressed for more openness. The
group included then state-Reps. David Hollister, D-Lansing, and H. Lynn
Jondahl, D-East Lansing. The stench of Watergate, the scandal about secret
government
dealings that led to President Nixon's resignation, still hung in the air.
Former state Rep. David Hollister, right, was part of the "Kiddie Caucus," a
group of reform-minded lawmakers in the 1970s. Hollister, who later became
Lansing's mayor, is pictured in 1978 with his aide, David Wiener. (Photo: File)
In that atmosphere, lawmakers approved the state's Freedom of Information Act
and Open Meetings Act. The new laws went a long way toward making sure the
public knew how its money was spent and how decisions were made. Hollister, who
shepherded the Open Meetings Act in the House, said he was motivated by
his experience as an Ingham County commissioner. He was left out of unofficial
meetings held the evening before the official county meetings. The real
decisions were being made at dinner at a bar near Mason and Hollister and
another Democratic commissioner, let alone the public, weren't invited. "I was
highly offended about that," Hollister recalled in a phone conversation. The
Open Meetings Act makes those kind of secret sessions for most government
bodies illegal and gave the county prosecutors and state Attorney General a way
to enforce that. Fast forward four decades. Court decisions, an attorney
general's opinion and legislative exemptions have chipped away at the power of
the sunshine acts. Instead of growing stronger, with a few exceptions (notably,
a law sponsored by Sen. Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, that limits charges for
copies of records made under FOIA) they've grown weaker and cloudier. Last fall,
Michigan was ranked dead last among the states in a study of transparency and
ethics. We earned our "F" through omissions, including the fact that Michigan
is one of two states that doesn't include the governor and Legislature under
the FOIA law. It's in that atmosphere of cloudiness that the Flint water crisis
bloomed like an unwanted algae growth. The scandal, with details still
emerging, is about a population under state emergency management that was given
lead-tainted water to drink while officials ignored, downplayed and denied
warning signs. Jane Briggs-Bunting, president of the Michigan Coalition for
Open Government , said a strong FOIA law may have stopped the Flint water
tragedy from happening as local and state officials would know that the public
was looking over their shoulders. The Flint water crisis shows both the power
and the weakness of the Freedom of Information Act. We know from FOIA, through
records released by Progress Michigan, that while state officials were denying
a problem with the water last year, they had water coolers brought in for
state employees working in Flint. One of the huge flaws of Michigan's FOIA is
that it is limited in scope and doesn't apply to the governor's office. Gov.
Rick Snyder has voluntarily (if you call intense international pressure
voluntary) released a series of emails on Flint water since late January. But
he's
not required to do that and there is no penalty if he omits any. The uproar
from Flint may be enough to at least extend FOIA to the governor's office.
That's in a bill pending before lawmakers. And Briggs-Bunting said it may be
the impetus needed to expand the state FOIA laws to cover the governor's office
and Legislature. It's past time to face up to the fact that we've bottomed out
in the Mitten State when it comes to sunshine. It shouldn't take another
scandal to make it happen. Sunshine Week: www.sunshineweek.org/ Michigan
Coalition for Open Government: http://miopengov.org/ Judy Putnam is a columnist
with the Lansing State Journal. Contact her at (517) 267-1304 or at
jputnam@xxxxxxx . Write to her at 300 S. Washington Square Suite #300 Lansing,
MI,
48933 . Follow her on Twitter @JudyPutnam .
