{"id":14616,"date":"2010-03-15T23:03:31","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T05:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=14616"},"modified":"2010-03-15T23:05:09","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T05:05:09","slug":"here-comes-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/03\/here-comes-the-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"Here comes the sun"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Sarah Welsh<\/p><\/div>\n

Giving thanks for an open, accountable government<\/h4>\n

Sometimes you just need a little perspective. Last month, while\u00a0politicos\u00a0and activists of every stripe were hunkered down in the Roundhouse, I slipped away to meet with two small delegations of African officials. They had come to America to learn about public transparency and anti-corruption efforts in an experienced democracy. (They were also delighting in the heavy snowfall they encountered.)<\/p>\n

My head was swimming with legislative minutiae \u2013 arguments about the confidentiality of a proposed\u00a0state ethics commission and why an online Sunshine Portal should include workers\u2019 names. But the African leaders weren\u2019t interested in that. They were looking at the big picture. They wanted to know how New Mexico was able to pass its freedom-of-information laws, and how we enforce them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

They wanted to know whether our government retaliates against nonprofit watchdogs by withholding their operating permits. They wanted to know what we do if the executive branch openly flouts a high-court order to divulge information.<\/p>\n

These questions forced me to take a big step back. And seen from that perspective, we\u2019ve come a long way toward bringing sunshine to government. Every state has laws guaranteeing access to public information.<\/p>\n

The American people\u00a0believe strongly in our right to oversee our government, and we are shocked and dismayed when vital information is withheld. Although the government may try to regulate the activities of citizen watchdogs, we have an extremely robust, independent nonprofit sector that participates in policy discussions largely without fear of overt retaliation or censorship.<\/p>\n

And though the executive branch may drag its feet and hold out as long as possible, a final court order has always been obeyed in the end.<\/p>\n

Celebrating National Sunshine Week<\/h3>\n

So I\u2019m going to celebrate this week \u2013 National Sunshine Week<\/a> \u2013 by giving thanks for America\u2019s many sunshine guarantees. In New Mexico, thanks to a legion of dedicated activists, we now have some of the toughest freedom-of-information laws in the nation. We\u2019re beginning to speak up about the enormous moral, civic and economic price of government secrecy and its bedfellow, corruption.<\/p>\n

Even better, we\u2019re doing something about it. \u2018Transparency\u2019 is the new buzzword across public agencies and in nonprofit and business sectors. Political candidates jockey to be the most open, pro-sunshine contender. And in the Roundhouse and in city and county chambers throughout\u00a0New Mexico, policymakers are embracing modern mechanisms for getting information to the people.<\/p>\n

After the celebrating is done, it\u2019s back to work. We still have to fight, day in and day out, to enforce our state Inspection of\u00a0Public Records Act<\/a> and Open Meetings Act<\/a>. It still takes months, and sometimes years, to obtain important government documents or to overturn illegal closed-door actions. It also takes money, time and a big chunk of sanity.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s a worthy fight, and it\u2019s a fight we will win. In the end, we the people are sovereign and we will assert our right to know. Please get out and assert that right today. And have a very happy Sunshine Week.<\/p>\n

Welsh is the executive director of the <\/em>New Mexico Foundation for Open Government<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m going to celebrate this week \u2013 National Sunshine Week \u2013 by giving thanks for America\u2019s many sunshine guarantees. In New Mexico, thanks to a legion of dedicated activists, we now have some of the toughest freedom-of-information laws in the nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":594,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[111,107],"class_list":["post-14616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-open-government","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/594"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14616\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}