RSSHere's your chance to help promote open government
Yakima Herald-Republic
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Two recent examples should hopefully provide enough incentive for the public and politicians to attend tonight's free forum on open government.
One deals with the recent release of e-mails from several Yakima City Council members detailing a behind-the-scenes campaign to garner votes for a controversial change in how the city would conduct its budgeting process. The council did eventually vote to change the budgeting process with little debate, resulting in a lawsuit, an out-of-court settlement, public apologies and a pledge this time to openly discuss how the city should put together its annual budget.
The other example involves state public records and this newspaper's costly legal challenge seeking a full accounting of how the public's money was spent in a would-be death penalty case in Yakima County. More than $2 million was spent defending two men accused of killing a father and his 3-year-old daughter four years ago.
Although 1,300 pages were released earlier this year, details of payments to the defense attorneys remain unanswered since most of the information in the documents was blacked out. The newspaper continues to pursue the matter in court.
We hope these two recent examples arouse enough interest in civic-minded residents to attend tonight's forum. The discussions should be relevant and thought-provoking.
We are glad to serve as co-sponsors with the League of Women Voters of Yakima County and welcome the assistance of the Washington Coalition for Open Government in presenting the forum from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the downtown Yakima library, 102 N. Third St.
The main purpose of the forum is to promote openness in government. But that only happens when the public gets involved. Tonight is a good starting point.
* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Bob Crider, Spencer Hatton and Karen Troianello.
"The main purpose of the forum is to promote openness in government."
Don't insult our intelligence. The main purpose of the forum is to attack the Herald's political enemies and do the dirty work for failed liberal politicians like Ron Bonlender.
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