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The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies that serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may maintain control over the instruments that they have created.

* Preamble to the state's

Open Public Meetings Act

Whenever talking about abuse of the open meetings and records laws and "sunshine" efforts to open things up, we like to quote that preamble because it's such a concise, direct capsulation of what the issue is all about. In our view, government officials can't be reminded enough of the fact that the people's business -- with a very few exceptions -- is to be conducted in full public view.

Still, we'll watch with interest the activities of the Spokane-based nonprofit Center for Justice, which is pursuing a spate of lawsuits against local governments accused of illegal secrecy. It's another version of "sunshine" efforts -- to shine a little more light on things, especially open meetings issues.

If there are violations of open meetings and legitimate access to public records, then by all means pursue litigation if that's the best way to stop them. But let's also insist on using a rifle, rather than a shotgun, in pursuing such suits.

We're skeptical of any file-first, ask-questions-later approach. In a society already so prone to litigation, that could actually wind up hurting the credibility of legitimate open-meetings efforts.

It's common knowledge that abuses of open meetings in particular continue and may, in fact, be on the increase. During legislative debate on open government issues earlier this year, the Washington Coalition for Open Government noted that State Auditor Brian Sonntag has identified hundreds of violations of the Open Public Meetings Act in audits of government bodies.

The Sunnyside City Council is the latest object of auditor scrutiny after hiring a new city manager under highly suspect circumstances. Council members chose Eric Swansen, currently the village manager of Yellow Springs, Ohio, from a field of 29 applicants and four finalists who visited the city earlier this month.

At issue is the fact that council members picked him in closed meetings over a period of several days. They declined to name their top pick, though they admitted they chose one during an executive session Saturday without a public vote.

State open government experts say the action may be against the law. The auditor's office plans to investigate the hiring process during its routine audit of Sunnyside, which it has just begun, said Mindy Chambers, a spokeswoman for the auditor.

This state is into openness in government. In a related development, a special "Sunshine Committee" authorized by the Legislature last year is actively reviewing about 300 exemptions of certain types of information from public review that have creeped into the state's Open Meetings Law since it was approved by voters in 1972 as part of the state Public Disclosure Law. At that time, the new law only had 10 exemptions to the public records section.

So we'll offer qualified support to the Center for Justice and its focus on illegal secrecy in government. In the final analysis, it's the public's right to know that is at issue.

We would suggest that from time to time local government officials take a quick read of that preamble to the Open Meetings Law (above). It's a short, excellent refresher course in openness in government.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins, Bill Lee and Karen Troianello.