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VIEWPINT: Jump in and pull for open government |
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By Yvonne D. Hawkins
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Tuesday, 26 June 2007 |
I suppose it’s the competitor in me.
Sometimes when I see a good tug-of-war going on, something compels me to pick a side.
That’s the urge that’s arising as I watch the ongoing struggle between the Business Journal’s sister publication, the Argus Leader, and this state government’s closed attitude toward open government.
Fortunately, there’s enough at stake for the business community that it permits entry to grab one end of the rope.
The latest tugging involves the Argus Leader’s quest to gain data about salaries of state employees. An administrative rule stipulates that the state will release the data only when a specific employee’s name is given. Meanwhile, state department heads are scrambling like characters in an Abbott and Costello shtick trying to figure out how to deal with the whole affair.
Because the Business Journal’s and Argus Leader’s news staffs are separate entities within Argus Leader Media that are driven by an internal competition to break news, I have no idea what prompted my colleagues’ request for the information.
But in the grand, cosmic scheme of things, since the data is legitimate public information, who really cares why the Argus wants the data?
The greater point is the message that’s sent when South Dakota’s government begins to operate more openly than it has been accustomed.
And since business and government are intricately intertwined – via the relationship between the regulator and the regulated – the battle between the folks down the hall from my office and the folks in Pierre no doubt is being watched by local business people like a nervous spectator biting his or her fingernails.
For its part, the business community is totally right to expect that whenever it’s dealing with state government certain competitive information will stay private. Reasonable minds agree with that.
At the same time, state officials also should stay firm with businesses that the need to protect their sensitive data will not be used as a cloak to operate all willy-nilly.
As a matter of fact, organizations with the greatest internal fortitude don’t even desire secrecy. Actually, they desire the opposite.
Those are the companies that, after securing competitive information, aren’t afraid to stand as beacons of light offering best practices for which others can model. And those are the companies that South Dakota both wants and needs. Not cowards who hide under rocks seeking the protective cover of state-offered darkness.
My pastor always is reminding me there’s a universal law of attraction that operates everywhere. I believe she’s right. I guess it’s her way of restating that whole birds-of-a-feather principle.
It’s true that an open-government atmosphere will attract businesses that operate in the open. It’s also true that government openness helps send a message to would-be scoundrels that no shenanigans will be had here.
After all, we don’t want business at any cost. We’re a more secure people than that. At least, that’s the vision we need our government leaders – from the governor’s mansion to the state Capitol to City Hall – to cast.
In that light, it would seem to be in everyone’s best interest to have a few others jump in and grab the open-government end of the rope, too. |