Fifty-two candidates for city, school and county elections accepted a Sunshine Week challenge to give their opinions on open government issues.

The Denton Record-Chronicle asked 76 candidates in races on the May 10 ballot to complete an online survey about open government. More than 68 percent responded, although incumbents were less likely to complete the survey than challengers.

Most saw transparency as a basic tenet of democratic government. But the survey exposed divergent views on issues such as how often closed-door meetings are justified, how much is too much to spend fulfilling residents’ requests for public records, and whether records from personal communication devices should be available to the public if they are used to conduct government business.

The survey was conducted as part of Sunshine Week, an annual, nationwide initiative that examines open government issues. Because 2008 is a presidential election year, Sunshine Week organizers developed questions for candidates at all levels of government.

Record-Chronicle reporters asked candidates to complete a simple, online survey with three open-ended questions on emerging issues on government transparency.

In addition, candidates were asked to answer yes or no to questions about public access to the personal records of elected officials, specifically if they opt to use their own resources to conduct government business.

The newspaper excluded candidates in uncontested races — with the exception of the two unopposed Denton school board hopefuls.

Philosophical themes

In the open-ended questions, a few candidates gave brief responses of a sentence or two, but most others crafted paragraphs with common themes.

In considering a philosophy of government openness, nearly every respondent touched on themes that the public has a right to know what its elected government officials are doing, that open records and meetings provide inherent “checks and balances,” or that the public trust in a governing body and its accountability are increased by that body’s transparency.

Many respondents underscored that without transparency, a democratic government is ultimately doomed. They saw openness as a fundamental principle, particularly at the local level where decisions often affect everyday life.

Some respondents pointed out that transparency had to be balanced with protection of the city’s position in a legal battle or an individual’s rights, the latter echoed the most frequently by candidates for school board.

Closed-door sessions

With such sensitive issues, the law allows governing bodies to meet behind closed doors under very specific circumstances, called executive sessions. From those respondents who felt they could offer an informed opinion, their assessments varied widely on whether governing bodies in Denton County used good judgment in adjourning to executive session.

Some respondents said they were comfortable with local practices, saying that governing bodies were selective and careful when to take up issues in private. They also said that city and school attorneys were helpful, because they were typically conservative about going behind closed doors and kept their discussions on track. One respondent said that, once behind closed doors, elected officials must have the self-discipline to stay on topic.

A few pledged to seek a district judge’s independent review of an executive session, as provided by law, if they felt more than their own opinion was needed for the appropriateness of the discussion, as did John Booher, who is seeking the Place 3 seat on the Corinth City Council. To that end, a handful of respondents did believe that some governments were too secretive and used closed-door sessions to avoid having to deliberate tough issues in public.

In Argyle, the three school board incumbents opted to respond to the survey via e-mail and two of them sent answers that were similar.

“Discussions in closed sessions ensure that we minimize our liability and protect the District’s resources,” wrote both board President Debbie Cantrell and board Vice President John Schinske.

“I don’t think the attorney-client privilege is abused except in rare cases,” wrote incumbent and school board member Randy McKellar, pointing out that he is more concerned with the misuse of personnel exemptions. 

Most challengers felt the privilege of executive sessions could be taken too far and at least one pointed out potential harm in spending too much time in closed meetings.

One challenger felt that in closed sessions “there should be some manner of record keeping that protects the public and the public servant from any question of impropriety.”

Cost of transparency

As one respondent offered, managing the cost and time of filling open records requests is where the “theory” of open government becomes “practice.”

A large number of respondents remained idealistic about the concept, saying that it was difficult to put a dollar amount on the value of information.

However, many felt technology made it possible to make records widely available for a low cost.

A few even threw down the gauntlet, saying that a government that could not take advantage of the technology probably wasn’t running efficiently in the first place.

Many respondents said that the public shared a responsibility in exercising its rights under the law. They agreed that charging for some records, particularly past certain thresholds, was reasonable.

A few also said that governmental bodies had a duty to ferret out frivolous requests to protect taxpayers.

Personal resources

School board candidates were more likely to respond “no” as to whether personal cellphone records, text messages and personal e-mail should be considered public record.

Nine out of 15 school board candidates who answered the yes or no questions answered “no” to at least one of the questions.

But, four out of those nine candidates also felt that the answers to those questions couldn’t be answered with a simple yes or no.

Those candidates feel the “‘jump’ from public to private should not be automatic,” but that situations can warrant portions of communication from personal devices be subject to open records requests — a decision, they feel, that should be handled on an individual basis with judiciary involvement.

“We must be careful not to make the office holder’s job a burden on the important privacy rights of the individual. … The public, the press and public officials must all work constructively together to maintain the proper balance,” wrote Denton school board member Jim Alexander.

Only five out of 33 city and county candidates answered “no” to at least one of the questions.

Some of those candidates answered “yes” but specified that only portions of their personal resources that relate to government business should be public.

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com.

AMY DODD THOMPSON can be reached at 940-566-6867. Her e-mail address is athompson@dentonrc.com.

LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@dentonrc.com.

Here are the questions asked of area candidates:

1. What is your philosophy of government openness? How important is it to democracy in local government?

2. Do you think the attorney-client privilege that permits executive session, or “closed-door meetings,” is interpreted too broadly among governmental bodies in Denton County? Why or why not?

3. Open records require staff time and resources to be of public value. How much is too much to spend on open government?

4. If you conduct city business with personal resources, do you agree that the following would be considered a public record? Answer yes or no to the following:

Personal cellphone call records

Personal text messages

Personal e-mail

Notes exchanged during meetings

The following are excerpts from Denton mayoral candidates’ responses to an online survey on open government.

Question: What is your philosophy of government openness? How important is it to democracy in local government?

Justin Bell, 30, businessman: “It is absolutely imperative that citizens have the ability to become informed of all decisions at the local level. I cannot think of a single example where information should be restricted from public view.”

Mark Burroughs, 50, lawyer: “It is absolutely essential; but openness alone is inadequate, hollow without accountability of those in authority. ‘Openness’ must not itself be abused, however, as a tool to isolate elected officials from keeping open lines of communication with all citizens on the issues.”

Darac Jason Favre, 20, swimming pool technician: “Government transparency (openness) and social accountability are important qualities vital to the success of any governing body. In a democracy every citizen matters, and the law governs over and for every citizen.”

Perry McNeill (incumbent), 71, retired college professor/engineer: “All City business must be open and completely transparent to the citizens. It is a fundamental right and obligation of our Republic.”

Question: Open records require staff time and resources in order to be of public value. How much is too much to spend on open government?

Bell: “Cost must never be used as an excuse concerning open government. If cost becomes an issue, then we must focus our efforts to make the process more efficient. We are a nation that created a system of government to serve the people. In order to maintain this delicate balance, the people must be armed with information or we become servants of the government.”

Burroughs: “The proper, reasoned use of open records is threatened by abuse for personal, business or political gain. Generally, abusers should be made to pay for their conduct, which often can be recognized by the repetitive nature of offending requests for information, broad, ‘shotgun’-type questions, and requests that are apparent random ‘fishing expeditions’ rather than specific requests with some semblance of public purpose.”

Favre: “I maintain that every citizen has a right to know how its government is functioning. … Official government records should be made available to the public, and with today’s technology making information sharing so easy, the price tag should not keep public records from being available to every concerned citizen.”

McNeill: “Certainly citizens have a right, indeed an obligation, to know and evaluate what their government is doing in the course of doing the citizen’s business. The Open Records Act affords them the ability to perform this duty. The challenge for appointed and elected officials is to review the use of taxpayer funds for frivolous activities. In the final analysis we should always error on the side of the requester.”

76 — number of candidates asked to participate in the online open government survey

52 — number of candidates who participated in the survey

68.4 percent — overall participation

21 — number of incumbents asked to participate

13 — number of incumbents who participated

61.9 percent — incumbents’ participation rate

55 — number of challengers asked to participate

39 — number of challengers who participated

70.9 percent — challengers’ participation