WASHINGTON — Arizona lawmakers are pushing to provide elected officials with more privacy as they draft legislation because they say the state’s requirements for open meetings make it too difficult for them to do their jobs.
The plan, proposed by state Sen. Sylvia Allen (R), would allow lawmakers to meet privately to negotiate and draft measures and would require them to have public debate only once a body takes an action, such as a vote. Arizona’s current laws require that officials hold a public meeting any time a quorum discusses matters that could result in legal action.
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Barr added that open meetings laws shouldn’t be weakened just because they make the lives of elected officials more difficult.
“Efficiency in government is not the primary goal of a democracy,” Barr told The Huffington Post. “Our whole theory of government is that the people are the governors and that they give limited power to the government, and for the public to adequately assess what its government is doing, it needs as much transparency as possible.”
