Taxpayers need state-paid legal advocate

You need a lawyer to fight the government.

Not a lawyer that you have to pay, at least not in the traditional sense.

You want one of those lawyers like the government has. One paid with taxpayer dollars.

And that's beauty of Illinois House Bill 4165, the public access counselor law, sponsored by Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago).

It sounds too good to be true. If you're denied access to government information, if you suspect some government body held an illegal meeting, all you have to do is pick up the phone, send an e-mail, or write a letter and the public access counselor launches an investigation.

As the former vice president for Freedom of Information of the Chicago Headline Club, I worked with Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan in creating the office of public access counselor in this state.

The position exists only because Madigan decided to create it within her existing budget. So without a legislative mandate, the next attorney general could simply eliminate the job.

That's one reason the bill is important. In addition, Madigan is pushing legislation that would give the public access counselor the authority to issue binding opinions.

If the measure passed, it would make it nearly impossible for any future attorney general to abolish the position. More important, the public would have a legal advocate within the government, a person who could mediate or arbitrate disputes before they go to court.

Despite what people say, you can fight City Hall. The primary problem has always been that doing so would cost you a fortune.

Governments not only have lawyers, they have millions of dollars in tax money with which to pay them. If a citizen files a freedom of information request for a document and the mayor or the governor doesn't want to give it to him, they can simply say, "Sue us."

Because the average guy doesn't even know the name of a lawyer, that usually ends the pursuit of knowledge. Public officials actually bank on that.

The public access counselor not only has the responsibility to arbitrate disputes between government agencies and the public, but also serves an important public education function.

Under the legislation, the counselor would train government officials who would be responsible for complying with the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (itself the subject of a rewrite in the current legislative session).

Community organizations also could request training by the public access counselor free of charge.

Effective citizen watchdogs will become increasingly important in an era when the number of newspapers is likely to decrease and the number of Internet bloggers continues to rise.

For nearly two centuries, the newspaper industry has provided the public with an essential check on the powers of the judicial, legislative and executive branches of government. Now we're seeing an unprecedented shift in that watchdog function.

If H.B. 4165 passes, government bodies would be able to appeal a public access counselor's opinion in court. But the onus would now be on the government to demonstrate why information should be kept secret, instead of on citizens to prove they're entitled to access.

Government officials also would have to overcome a judicial bias in favor of the access counselor's binding opinion.

Finally, the access counselor could file a lawsuit against any government agency that refused to release documents, essentially becoming the citizen's lawyer in the courtroom.

Good government and secrecy cannot co-exist. Information is essential to understanding how your government spends your tax money. It is the first step in uncovering backroom deals and pay-to-play political games.

While some claim the cost of open government is prohibitive, it has been estimated that former Gov. Rod Blagojevich spent $200,000 of your tax money fighting the Better Government Association's effort to obtain documents from his administration. That was after the attorney general told him he was violating the law, an opinion eventually upheld by a judge.

Government bodies have a long history of spending tax dollars to block the distribution of public information. As residents of Illinois have repeatedly discovered, the cost of keeping secrets is far too steep.

Phil Kadner's column appears five times a week in the SouthtownStar. He can be reached at pkadner@southtownstar.com or (708) 633-6787.

Photo: M. Spencer Green, AP / llinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan created the office of public access counselor. Without a legislative mandate, the next attorney general could eliminate the job. ;