All about accountability

As a newspaper, our primary goal is to inform our readers of what’s happening in the world, not just locally but on the state and, if necessary, national level. In recent weeks, we’ve been keeping you updated on what’s happening in the Legislature. However, it is this same Legislature that has made not one, but three attempts at keeping us at doing our jobs when it comes to keeping our town and county leaders accountable.

The first of these attempts came from House Bill 146, which would take out requirements that names be published with the salaries for city and county employees and elected officials. As second part of the bill states each board of county commissioners shall post on the county’s official website these salaries, with no mention of requirement that they also publish in local newspapers.

The bill sparked plenty of controversy and debate in the Legislature, with some concerned about the criticism town and county employees and elected officials would be subject to if their salaries were published publicly. Others argued those same employees and officials should perhaps not be in their positions if they can’t handle a little criticism.

Though on the surface the 29-27 vote to kill the bill was already a close one, it could’ve easily turned out differently as during a roll call vote two representatives changed their vote from “aye” to “no” and there were four excused.

However, another bill took things a bit further. House Bill 201 stated the governing body of a city or town “may designate a legal newspaper and publish once therein or on the website of the legal newspaper the minutes of all regular and special meetings of the governing body and titles of all ordinances passed.”

This simple statement provided governing bodies the option to publish their proceedings online rather than in a newspaper, if they so chose. However, HB201 met its end early Tuesday morning, with a 7-2 vote against in the Travel, Recreation Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee.

Pushing the issue even more is House Bill 242, which doesn’t shy away from its goal of eliminating published notices in newspapers with its language to create the “statewide official notices website” and “requiring publication of legal notices on the official notices website rather than in a newspaper.”

While this seems like posting online would be more efficient, it also calls into question whether such reports would be accurate. In an age where electronic records can be modified, either by the reporting body or others with malicious intent, having a print record is crucial to keep people accurately informed of any actions taken by governing bodies and how taxpayers’ money is being spent.

Even if there were safeguards that were 100 percent effective in keeping online publications from being altered, publishing them in a newspaper also lends credibility to government entities. Rather than posting to a site run by those same entities, papers provide an unbiased look.

Papers have been and will continue to be a prime source for people to get information about what is going on in their communities, though bills such as those presented in this year’s Legislature are designed to cut them out of the loop and, even worse, lessen the government’s accountability to the people. This simply cannot be allowed to happen if our government is to continue to be one that is by the people and for the people.