Jindal wants transparency, except for his office

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.

“Gov. Jindal’s said he wants to increase Louisiana’s transparency rating. We do want to get to the gold standard, and we do have to start with the governor’s office,” said Rep. Wayne Waddell, who is pushing a severe restriction on the records exemption for Louisiana’s governor.

The governor’s office has been exempt from the state’s public records law since the law was put in place, except for contracts and documents that involve spending money.

The proposal by Waddell, R-Shreveport, would make the records of the governor’s office available to the public – except for the records of the governor, his chief of staff and his executive counsel. All other documents in the office would be open to public scrutiny.

“It is essential to the maintenance of a Democratic society that the public business be performed in an open and public manner,” Waddell told the House and Governmental Affairs Committee, which approved his bill last week and sent it to the full House for debate.

Now, the real haggling begins.

Waddell offered a similar proposal during the ethics special session but scrapped it amid opposition from the governor. Now, he’s back with the same bill, and he faces the same opposition – but with a new wrinkle: the Jindal administration is pushing a competing bill.

Jindal’s executive counsel, Jimmy Faircloth, said the administration bill by Sen. Mike Walsworth, R-West Monroe, would limit the public records exemption for the governor to take out dozens of agencies and commissions that currently get the exemption. That’s an improvement for access.

But the Jindal bill also would include much more in the exemption than Waddell proposes.

Faircloth said Waddell’s bill is too restrictive and would create problems for Jindal to freely receive ideas, policy recommendations and communications from legislators and the public.

“What’s going to happen is none of us is ever going to put anything in writing or in anybody else’s hands. We’re going to give verbal instructions,” Faircloth told the House committee.

It’s unclear why the governor’s office can’t be treated like other state departments – and several other governors’ offices around the country – which mainly are required to let citizens view their records and documents, with exceptions for specific items like documents related to ongoing criminal investigations or industry trade secrets.

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.

When he opposed Waddell’s bill in the ethics session, Faircloth said, “We are respectfully in opposition to a bill that will allow the inner workings of the policy process to be exposed to public view because I think it will chill the creativity.” But wouldn’t it be novel if citizens knew how their top elected official made decisions and based on what advice?

EDITOR’S NOTE: Melinda Deslatte covers the state Capitol for The Associated Press.