For many
years now, the Arizona Governor and the Arizona Legislature that he or she
leads, has been a great potential source of material for Saturday Night Live. The
humorous buffoonery supplied by George Bush, Jr. has been nicely replaced by
the antics of the Arizona Ultra-Right, which controls Arizona government. Governor Doug Ducey has started his term in
office with the same type of hilarity as his recent predecessors. Recently, he has done away with his office’s
visitor log. Our newspaper quoted him as
saying, at a recent news conference, “Our review said that those logs were
incomplete and inaccurate. So we didn’t
want to present something that was incomplete and inaccurate.” The Governor’s response to the problem was
not to improve the accuracy of the log, but to get rid of it. A Ducey spokesman said, “No logs mean a
savings on paperwork and better efficiency for the office.” A better punch line could not be written. You Arizona folks can kiss your transparency
in government goodbye. Doug’s corporate
sponsors’ visits to the governor’s office will go unnoticed by you. Probably the simple majority of Arizonans
will like it that way.
When I go
for an annual wellness visit at my doctor’s office, I have to sign in on the
log. The secretary greets me at the
desk, marks me in on her computer calendar.
The doctor’s assistant calls me in and takes my blood pressure, my pulse
and my height, each of which she records in my file. The doctor then sees me and asks a myriad of
questions, which he duly records in my file.
Each visit involves a HICFA form to be sent to my health insurance carrier. You don’t see the doctor, without signing in
on the visitor’s log. “So what?” you
might say. Well, all that I am saying
here is that something as unimportant as my annual check-up is pretty well
documented, including my signed admission that I was there, but if the CEO of a
coal fired power supplier or their lobbyist visits our Governor, “it is very
expensive and exhausting” to record those visits. The governors who preceded Doug Ducey were
able to do it, with much less technology at their fingertips. In the interest of transparency, I believe
that our governor should walk the extra mile.
I don’t mean to limit his freewheeling capitalist spirit.
Our Arizona
public schools normally fall in about the 48th position in the state
ratings for educational excellence. The
Governor might see the system as “incomplete and inaccurate”. I would hope that Gov. Ducey would not see
the solution to the state’s education problems solved by ending public schools.
Doug Ducey has served as a board member
of the Arizona State Charter School Board.
Hopefully, as an ultra-conservative, he doesn’t see excellent education
only for the children of the wealthy as a “savings on paperwork and better
efficiency” for the state, versus a better education for all. Doug Ducey, in the private sector, has been a
bright and effective manager. Let us
hope that he is able to come out of the conservative fog and stop the State of
Arizona from supplying material to Saturday
Night Live.
Comments are welcome, Old Buz
Update: The Governor has brought back the office log-in sheet, but has made it very clear that signing in is voluntary. Transparency ... be damned.
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