Technology is a great thing. And laptop computers, e-mail and the Internet are changing the way all of us, including the Utah Legislature, work and learn.
But a new twist is arising in the state's part-time Legislature.Are legislators, perhaps unwittingly, violating the spirit of the open meetings law by the use of their laptops and e-mail?
It's a tough question, one that perhaps only paranoid journalists or citizen activist/government reformers may worry about. But it's still there.
Other Deseret News reporters and I have been noticing recently that some legislators are using their laptops during committee hearings and appear to be having ongoing e-mail conversations with other committee members and staff.
A year or so ago, the committee rooms were specially wired so that lawmakers and committee staff who so desired could plug their computers in and be "online" during the hearings.
For several years the lawmakers desks on the House and Senate floors have been wired. And while legislative staff, during the general sessions, still maintain the voluminous bill books, which contain all the bills and amendments, by and large the Legislature is now doing its work electronically.
Lawmakers watch their laptop computer screens during debates and pull up bills and proposed amendments as they go along; they can search minutes of recent committee and floor sessions; can review votes and communicate with each other and their staff researchers and attorneys.
The Legislature's internal computer system is closed to the press and public. In fact, when the Deseret News asked several years ago if it could get online with lawmakers from the newspaper's appointed spot on the press bench in the House, legislative leaders said no.
Even though their own internal computer technology staff said they could rig the system so the Deseret News could get only the bills and amendments online -- and not break into lawmakers' e-mail system -- legislative leaders decided that only legislative members and their employees would be allowed access.
I can see that argument.
But how the e-mail system is now being used during committee hearings and on the floor of the House and Senate raises new questions.
And lawmakers themselves may want to clearly understand the playing field. In court cases around the country it has now become common practice for attorneys to subpoena e-mail records of all parties involved in attempts to help their clients.
Deseret News reporter Joel Campbell, besides his regular newspaper work, is also a lobbyist for press freedom with the Utah Press Association and a longtime watcher of the open meetings law and the Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA).
At a recent legislative meeting he attended, it appeared to Campbell that as a lawmaker was presenting a bill -- and watching his laptop computer screen -- he was communicating with a staff member and perhaps other lawmakers. Those interactions, of course, are not part of the public record; not spoken out loud.
People at the hearing don't know what is going on behind the scenes, if you will.
The purpose of the open meetings law is to have public business conducted in public. If legislators and staff are communicating privately during a public meeting, is the law being followed? Could a committee chairman, for example, be sending e-mail to other committee members suggesting that the committee adjourn, stop one aspect of the hearing or vote down the measure before them?
If the committee chairman said out loud, "I think we should vote this bill down and move on," that's one thing -- everyone at the meeting would know what was happening. But if he sent an e-mail to, say, only the Republican members of the committee or only the members of the committee that usually agreed with him, suggesting the same thing, then the bill could be voted down without the public at the hearing knowing what was really going on.
Now, I've covered the Legislature for 18 years. And I've seen notes passed around a committee hearing. I've seen committee members huddle outside the room before they go in to debate a controversial bill. And I've seen influential members of a committee speak out loud to suggest a postponement on an issue knowing others would follow their lead and kill the bill.
On the floor of the House and Senate, I've seen legislators and their leaders call each other on their telephones (located at each desk) and action quickly taken on this or that matter.
So e-mail is just another form of quietly getting done what would be done in some other way.
But e-mail leaves a traceable record, whereas a note can be torn up, or legislators can deny they communicated privately to achieve an end. E-mails could be made public through court action or other means.
Legislative leaders have warned their members not to e-mail anything that they wouldn't, at some point, want made public.
They should give another warning: Don't use e-mail during floor or committee action that could appear to be advocating a course of action the legislator wouldn't say publicly during debate.
Technology is a wonderful thing. But it can be a dangerous thing if used improperly.
Deseret News political editor Bob Bernick Jr. may be reached by e-mail at bbjr@desnews.com