Georgia makes its priorities clear
Gov. Nathan Deal made national news recently, for all the right reasons, when he made the courageous decision to veto a bad bill.
On Monday, he signed one. It’s Senate Bill 323, whose chief sponsor appears to have been University of Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart.
Just kidding — sort of. Chief sponsor of the legislation was Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, but the issue made a quick appearance in the legislative agenda after a visit by Smart to the Gold Dome, and was passed on the next-to-last day of the General Assembly session.
The legislation, which with Deal’s signature becomes law July 1, gives UGA and other public college athletic departments in the state three months instead of three days to respond to most open-records requests.
Supporters of the law, including Smart, Ehrhart and the governor’s office, have all claimed that it simply “levels the field” in recruiting. (Granted, as a sports metaphor that one’s just too perfect in this context.)
Critics argue — and we agree — that so large a chunk carved out of open government law is far too high a price to pay for no loftier a principle than better sports teams.
"The amendment is so broadly written,” Hollie Manheimer of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation told the Associated Press, “it makes secret contract terms, letters of complaint or inquiry from the NCAA, plans for the expenditure of university and athletic association funds, and even more. No other public agency in Georgia is given 90 days to conduct its business in secret."
It also shields from public scrutiny — for 90 days, anyway — such details as athletic department capital projects and budgets for recruiting.
This end-run around every principle of public accountability (politicians don’t have a monopoly on sports metaphors) scored easily, with broad bipartisan support and the approval of the governor. Which just means this very bad law arrives with plenty of blame to go around.
Timing is right
We’ve heard all this before. But the Gainesville Times reported Sunday that top-level Georgia and Florida officials have been participating in marathon telephone and in-person mediation sessions over the decades-long disputes over river water.
In separate April 1 filings with the U.S. Supreme Court, Georgia attorneys noted that “The Governor’s office, the Attorney General’s office and Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division have participated in each of the phone calls and were present at the mediation.” Florida confirms that “The parties have been engaged in a substantive and serious confidential mediation process over the past month.”
The mediator, according to the Florida filing, “is nationally known and highly regarded,, and has invested considerable time and effort in the mediation process.”
Intriguing, and — we say this with more than 25 years of accrued caution — reasonably encouraging.
This story was originally published April 12, 2016 at 4:54 PM with the headline "Georgia makes its priorities clear."