Dana Beyer, MD, for Maryland State Delegate 2010

Accountability and Transparency 2010

Marylanders deserve a transparent, accountable and accessible government. In fact, it’s long overdue.

That’s why as a leader of the Progressive Working Group and Progressive Neighbors’ Transparency and Equal Access workgroup, I fought for our signature bill, the Maryland Open Government Act. When it was killed in the House Rules Committee by unknown committee chairs who were able to game the system by exercising secret vetos, I said this was exactly the kind of backroom politics that our bill was designed to abolish.

“ Where’s the justice here?” I said.  “We had a majority of delegates and a filibuster-proof majority of Senators as co-sponsors. We had the support of both the Speaker and Senate President, made manifest by the administrative change to put committee votes online, which occurred shortly after my colleagues and I met with the Speaker.  And still the will of the people was thwarted?”

“Never mind,” I said.  “We’ll be back!”

Here’s what real accountability and transparence will look like when we bring this legislation forward and get it passed:

• All committee roll-call votes will be online, including those on amendments.
• Hearings will be webcast, including those of the Board of Public Works.
• Procedural rules in Annapolis will be reformed so that grassroots groups, as well as individual citizens, are on an equal footing with corporate lobbyists.
• Public meetings and hearings will be scheduled to maximize citizen input, publicizing the schedules online, allowing online sign-up for testimony, and sticking to that schedule so people can get home to their families and cater to their own personal needs, which may include medical care

I look forward to working closely next year with Delegate Heather Mizeur, lead sponsor of the Maryland Open Government Act, to make passage a reality.