Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 5, 1992 TAG: 9201050151
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG SCHNEIDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WATCHDOGS WANT MEETINGS OPEN
In late 1991 you were cordially invited to watch state senators haggle over your tax money. Finally.The public was unwelcome last winter and in 1990 at supposedly open sessions of the Senate Finance Committee, where politicians put dollars to programs.
The committee's recent tilt toward openness in Virginia government may or may not continue this year. If it does not, some watchdogs are ready to push the issue.
"We're starting to work with groups now so if there is no reform in 1992, there will be a broad coalition for [change in] '93," said Kent Willis, director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Virginia.
The ACLU lost a lawsuit last year over those closed Senate Finance meetings, but the meetings in the fall opened anyway. The corresponding committee in the House of Delegates, the Appropriations Committee, has held open budget sessions for decades.
The Virginia Press Association, which represents the state's newspapers and broadcasters, is expected to push this year for repeal of a loophole in state law that allows legislative committees to have "informal" meetings without notice to the public and media. That loophole doomed the ACLU suit.
Common Cause and the ACLU hope to educate and enlist the aid of other groups, including the League of Women Voters and the VPA, for additional reforms, said Julie Lapham of Common Cause. But the effort will take too long to mount a campaign in 1992.
In the meantime, Lapham's group will pursue other open-government issues, she said. Conflict of interest rules for politicians should be tightened, Lapham said, and lobbyists should be more regulated.
"We have some of the most lax lobby laws in the nation," she said.
Lobbyists only report what they spend wooing politicians between Nov. 15 and the end of the legislative session the following spring; Common Cause wants to know what lobbyists spend the rest of the year.
Also up for review this year: allowing cameras in state courtrooms, which has been done experimentally since 1987. The Assembly extended the program two years ago, but cameras are allowed in only a few courts, among them Bedford and Virginia Beach.
Now the state has to decide whether to continue experimenting, to install the program around Virginia or to scrap it.\ MAKING YOUR VOICE HEARD:
Contact your senator or delegate. If you don't have the phone number, call Legislative Information in Richmond at (804) 786-6530.
American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, 6 N. 6th St., Richmond, Va. 23219. (804) 644-8022.
Virginia Press Association, P.O. Box C-32015, Richmond, Va. 23261-2015. (804) 550-2361.
Common Cause of Virginia, 6 N. 6th St., Richmond, Va. 23219. (804) 643-0157
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY