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Opinion Column by Wanda Garner Cash

Published: March 03, 2006
Last Updated: March 03, 2006

Making the transition to the public life of an elected official can be a jolt for most folks, whether they’re accustomed to doing business in a corporate boardroom or over a counter at the hardware store.

There’s scant little training out there to adequately prepare a well-intentioned citizen for the scrutiny, criticism and Monday-morning quarterbacking that accompany the often-thankless jobs of school board trustees and city council members.

Regardless of a lack of preparation, however, Texas Attorney Greg Abbott doesn’t accept ignorance as an acceptable excuse for folks who are elected to uphold the law. So Abbott launched a campaign to get rid of those excuses—by requiring elected officials to take formal courses on Texas open records and open meetings laws.

In 2005, Abbott successfully appealed to the Texas Legislature to strengthen the state’s open government laws by passing legislation that mandates just such training for each elected or appointed public official in Texas.

That’s approximately 35,000 officeholders, ranging from the governor to the county hide inspector, with city councils, tax assessors, school boards, state agencies and commissions and a legion of special districts in between.

Opponents stammered out predictable objections, primarily that it would be an "unnecessary and burdensome expense" to trek to Austin for the training. But Abbott persevered, gaining support from Texas newspaper editors and publishers, who testified at legislative hearings, wrote editorials and opinion columns and made calls upon their state legislators.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst helped the cause by supporting the initiative and saying they would take the course.

Ultimately, the final bill retained the original training content and deflated the opposition by making the course free and available on the AG’s Web site.

The only notable weaknesses in the bill are a lack sanctions for non-compliance, and the fact that actions by a government body are not affected if one or more of its members fails to meet the training requirements.

On the plus side, however, course completion is admissible as evidence in a criminal prosecution, and failure to comply could be used by a prosecutor in the "knowingly" standard of a criminal offense.

In the first 60 days after the new law took effect Jan. 1, 2006, the AG’s office has issued 4,487 certificates of completion in the open meetings act and 4,030 certificates in open records.

Perry is scheduled to take the course March 16, Dewhurst on April 13 and House Speaker Tom Craddick on April 27.

Katherine "Missy" Cary, assistant attorney general in charge of the AG’s open government division, says the course completions increase "by the hundreds" every day.

"We've gotten very few complaints," Cary said, "mostly compliments. The most frequent comment we hear is, 'Wow, we didn’t know how much we didn’t know'."

Indeed, the attorney general’s quest for this mandatory training grew out of his concern for governmental bodies who were getting bad advice about Texas open government laws. When Oklahoma failed to get a similar law on the books, Abbott became determined that Texas would succeed.

"What I have learned as attorney general is that public officials do not always know what is required of them," Abbott said. "Education of public officials about government's duty to provide information to the citizens it represents is one way my office can ensure correct responses are provided."

So far, the attorney general’s office is about the only training option, although officials choose from AG-sanctioned course providers. Out of about 20 would-be trainers, Cary’s office has approved only two: the Texas Association of School Boards and an Austin law firm.

Meanwhile, the AG’s free training video can be downloaded in an application similar to online defensive driving courses. It consists of a one-hour section on open meetings and one hour on open records. Check it out at www.oag.state.tx.us.

Officials who are elected or appointed after Jan. 1, 2006 must take the course no later than 90 days after they take office. Those in office when the training became law have until Jan. 1, 2007. Government public information officers are also required to take the open records course.

Cary said the cost to produce the training materials should be offset by savings from reducing the number of requests for open records rulings. In the past year, that was 11,361 requests, many of them about previously decided issues.

Abbott said he's proud of this effort to ensure government in Texas remains transparent and accessible. It is his hope, he said, that the training will have a "positive impact on the way government officials perceive their role, not as protectors of public information but as active participants in information-sharing with the public."

Wanda Garner Cash is editor and publisher of The Baytown (Texas) Sun, a past president of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas and a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editor’s Freedom of Information Committee.