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First Salary Commission Meeting Lacking In Transparency

Independent Citizens CommitteeOne of the interesting things I heard at that Issue 3 panel I attended earlier in the week  was that Issue 3’s proponents plans to try to involve the public as much as possible in the Salary Commission’s process of “correcting” (less euphemistically: raising!) legislative pay.
If yesterday’s announcement is any foreshadowing of things to come, the public shouldn’t hold their breath about having much involvement in this process.
From Talk Business:

In other legislative-related news, the independent citizens commission created by the passage of Issue No. 3 last month will meet at the state capitol on Thursday, Dec. 18 at 9:30 a.m. in Room 272. That room is on the Senate side of the capitol, which does not have live-stream access. The recently-named commission will eventually set salaries for elected officials in the executive, legislative and judicial branch of state government.

Most “independent citizens” I know have to be at work at 9:30 a.m. on a Thursday. It’s awfully convenient that the room for the meeting will be in an area that doesn’t have live-streaming capabilities. This ensures that fewer “independent citizens” will be able to observe the salary commission in action.
This is just further evidence that more state government meetings should be live-streamed.
P.S.: We at The Arkansas Project were saddened and shocked to see that the Natural State’s foremost purveyor of left-leaning conventional wisdom, Blake Rutherford, has left for the greener pastures of the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office. Apparently, other soon-to-be-former Dustin McDaniel staffers might be headed to Pennsylvania as well.
Many have wondered, post-2014, what the future is of the state’s Democratic Party. Apparently, the path forward for a new-and-improved Arkansas Democratic Party leads through Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

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