Pursuing Holiness

I’ve been a Jindal fan for years - I followed his early career in working on Louisiana’s health care systems, I’ve voted for him as a Representative in the House, and of course as Governor. But this is very disappointing:

Gov. Bobby Jindal wants less sunshine for his office than the type of transparency that he touted on the campaign trail and that he used to call lawmakers into a special legislative session three months ago on the need for openness in government.

Jindal is opposing a bill that would require nearly all of his office to comply with the same public records laws as other state agencies. He cites a need to hide from the public papers and records as part of executive privilege.

Other governors have opposed similar attempts at openness over the years. But they didn’t campaign, as Jindal did, on ethics and cleaning up Louisiana’s image. Jindal fails to mention that Louisiana ranks dead last on a list of the public’s ability to scrutinize documents in the governor’s office.

… The Jindal proposal would maintain a blanket records exemption for the governor and a list of his employees: chief of staff, executive counsel, policy director, press secretary, legislative director, director of boards and commissions, director of intergovernmental affairs, director of constituent services, communications director, scheduling director and “each member of their respective staff.”

It also would give a blanket exemption to the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness and the state Military Department.

In other words, all the state’s emergency preparedness plans would be secret. The governor’s schedule, documents that show who influences his decisions and who bends his ear, would be shielded. Even papers of the press secretary — whose main job is to talk with reporters and members of the public — would stay hidden.

First he allowed his ethics reform to be gutted into near unenforceability by the last-minute, sneaky addition of the legal standard “clear and convincing,” and now this attempt at permanently stonewalling the public makes me wonder just what it is he intends to hide.  It’s very disappointing, and those who are holding him up as a potential VP choice, a Presidential candidate for 2012 or 2016, or the hope of the GOP are very premature.  If these things are going to be typical - and I’m certainly hoping they will not be - of Governor Jindal’s administration, then it’s just business as usual.  This is not what Louisiana needs; we need the Jindal who campaigned for honest and open government and new standards in Louisiana government.

written by Laura