[Vision2020] Otter's Private Ceremony Draws Criticism

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (December 28, 2006) Spokesman Review -

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Otter's private ceremony draws criticism 

Open-meeting expert says swearing-in official act and should be conducted in
public

Jesse Harlan Alderman 
Associated Press
December 28, 2006

BOISE - Gov.-elect C.L. "Butch" Otter's refusal to allow a public or media
representative to attend his swearing-in ceremony may violate the First
Amendment, a Boise attorney who specializes in open meetings law said
Wednesday.

"I don't see any grounds for them to do it," said Allen Derr, a lawyer for
the Idaho Press Club. "It may not fit exactly in the open meetings law, but
the theory and practice makes it a public event and it should be open to the
public - it's the official assumption of the office."
 
On Jan 1, Otter will take his official oath behind closed doors, breaking a
tradition of public oaths perhaps for the first time in state history.

On Wednesday, Otter, a former Republican congressman and lieutenant
governor, declined a request from the Associated Press to allow one
representative from the Idaho media to attend the swearing-in as a public
witness.

"It's not trying to be exclusive. It's not trying to rope anybody out," said
Jon Hanian, a spokesman for Otter. "That's just the way he wants it and
that's the way it's going to be."

Idaho's Constitution requires each new governor to take the oath, "beginning
on the first Monday in January" after the election. This year, the first
Monday falls on New Year's Day, a government holiday.

On New Year's Day, the chief justice of state Supreme Court will swear in
Otter at the private event for family, friends and some state officials in
the governor's office at the Statehouse, Hanian said.

Following the ceremony, a clerk in Secretary of State Ben Ysursa's office
will certify the oath, officially elevating Otter as Idaho's 32nd governor.

Ysursa said past governors Phil Batt and Dirk Kempthorne also held small
swearing-in ceremonies before larger inauguration celebrations.

"This is not the first time it's been a holiday," he said. "It's not the
first time it's been a small, simple ceremony. Whether it's closed or not is
another story."

After the late-morning or early afternoon oath ceremony, the governor will
fly to Glendale, Ariz., to watch Boise State University play in the Fiesta
Bowl.

Otter has scheduled a re-enactment of the swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 5, as
part of his public inauguration celebration on the Capitol steps in Boise.

"The governor-elect has said his public display has always been on the front
steps," Hanian said. "Some governors have done it differently, but he
doesn't want to make a big deal out of the procedural swearing-in so all the
attention can be focused on the public event."

Derr said the state-certified oath of office on Jan. 1 holds a different
legal definition than the inauguration festivities on Jan. 5. "The public
ceremony is fluff. That's pomp and circumstance," Derr said. "All public
business must be conducted in public and (the oath) is public business."

Outgoing Gov. Jim Risch, who won re-election to his former job as lieutenant
governor after a seven-month term in the state's top slot, will allow media
representatives to witness his swearing-in, spokesman Brad Hoaglun said.

Risch will be vacationing at Sun Valley ski resort on Jan. 1. He likely will
take his oath with some family members at a mountain condominium.

"Out of 38 years of marriage, 35 have been spent in Sun Valley," Hoaglun
said of Risch and his wife, Vickie. "They'll have an oath, but hey, if
someone from the Ketchum Mountain Express or a local paper wanted to witness
it, we'd have no problem with that."

Otter's announcement of a private oath ceremony unnerved some historians and
political observers. Arthur Hart, former director of the Idaho State
Historical Society, told the Lewiston Tribune that Otter may take the first
private oath since bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., swore in Idaho's
territorial governors.

Jim Weatherby, an emeritus professor of public policy at Boise State
University, said there is an "assumption" that a public representative
witnesses the oath.

"As one of the first official acts of the new governor, I would expect him
to be more open than he is showing," Weatherby said. "It does send a message
as to how open his administration will be, whether intended or not."

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"If not us, who?
If not now, when?"

- Unknown