Sunshine Week a time to look at lack of transparency in West Virginia’s government

The West Virginia Capitol in Charleston, W.Va. (Perry Bennett | West Virginia Legislative Photography)

It’s nothing short of poetic that daylight saving time and Sunshine Week — a national celebration of open government — should both coincide with the end of this year’s legislative session.

The current legislative majority was elected on a platform of transparency and accountability, but practice hasn’t exactly aligned with preaching. This session was again marked by constant snubbing of transparency and thoughtful, out-in-the-open deliberation of the issues.

Recent sessions have been marked by a lack of transparency and the 2024 session was sadly no different. Bills were fast-tracked with no debate or discussion, and expert testimony was ignored and even refused in some cases.

This raises the specter that important debates and policy discussions are actually happening behind closed doors.

Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, alluded to the amount of closed-door deal making when defending his actions in derailing the Crown Act. As reported by Gazette-Mail columnist Phil Kabler, Tarr admonished his fellow senators, “This is why we have these votes in caucuses.”

Of course, when these votes happen in caucus, citizens are robbed of the opportunity to hear the debates and see where their representatives actually stand. Closed-door debates also mean citizens don’t get to see the blatant disregard for expert opinion.

Several bills that were introduced and taken up for consideration flew in the face of constitutional precedent. Legislative attorneys, who are tasked with flagging these concerns but also serve at the Legislature’s will, routinely raised concerns, but were disregarded.

Fortunately, the public did get plenty of opportunity to view the willful ignorance and disdain for expert opinion by some of our legislators. There were several examples of bills, such as vaccine exemptions and attacks on trans people, where the experts were publicly ignored. Fortunately, many of these bills failed to make it past the finish line this session.

The disdain for contradictory opinions at times felt personal.

After being asked to testify on a bill upon which ACLU-WV had expert legal knowledge, a committee member objected and the committee voted not to let me speak. Later in the session, something similar happened to a speaker from WV FREE regarding testimony on the so-called Women’s Bill of Rights.

This was the first time in my eight years at the Legislature that I can recall witnesses being rejected.

Lawmakers also ensured less independence and transparency in the Legislative Auditor’s Office. The auditor that provides independent evaluation of government programs will now serve at the discretion of the speaker and senate president, adding a political layer to this office, while also limiting what information is public.

People rely on the media to keep them informed of these actions, but unfortunately, we’re seeing a rapid erosion of independent journalism in West Virginia.

Governor Justice’s ongoing exclusion of open press at his briefings has allowed him to curate the coverage he gets. And let’s not forget the firing of several reporters at the Charleston Gazette-Mail by politician and HD Media President Doug Skaff.

This session, the Legislature went further by passing a bill that puts West Virginia Public Broadcasting directly under the control of the governor.

For now, we’re going to have to settle for the longer days of the season. I’m afraid we won’t be seeing much sunshine in our government any time soon.

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