Employers have every right - and need - to know how their employees spend their work time. Citizens have never really asserted this right with their direct employees - the men and women elected to office to serve the public. Maybe they'll soon start, thanks to some fresh ground plowing by Montana's newly elected Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester.
Tester fulfilled a campaign promise when he began posting and archiving daily logs of his meetings and activities. You can keep an eye on him yourself via the Internet at tester.senate.gov/schedule.cfm. He appears to be the first and only senator to do so. In the House of Representatives, newly elected Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., also is posting her meeting schedule online.
Our elected leaders are on the public payroll. They use public facilities and services and resources on what is supposed to be entirely the public's business. Everybody they meet is in one way or another seeking public favors or responding to public demands. Nobody has any claim to privacy or secrecy when engaging people in public office. We elect these folks to represent us, not themselves or particular interests. So anything anyone has to say to our representative, they ought to be prepared to say to us.
The ability to operate beyond view creates an environment conducive to corruption. Most members of Congress are probably smart enough to know that their schedules, phone logs, travel arrangements and a whole lot more may be subject to subpoena, press leaks and release, no matter how hard they work to keep them under wraps. Yet they also know they generally can get away with cloaking their activities with some measure of secrecy - mostly because the people who hire them rarely demand to know how they spend their time. Giving the politicians a free pass on the use of their time can't help but encourage the ethically challenged ones to consider themselves beyond accountability.
Maybe Tester's transparency isn't a trend about to catch fire. But it's a start. Montanans should demand the same of the other members of the state's delegation in Washington, D.C. A spokesman for Max Baucus said the other day that the senior senator will consider posting his schedule online. A spokesman for Rep. Denny Rehberg said, essentially, “no way.”
It's up to you, actually. You're the boss. And if you decide it's worth knowing how your elected representatives are spending time in your name, they'll provide that information. If not, the man or woman you replace him with next election will.
Did we mention that both Baucus and Rehberg are up for election in 2008?
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