Republicans pledged to use their new clout in state government to blow away the storm clouds and let in the sunshine, but government-transparency advocates say the 2011 legislative session was a disappointment overall.

Two chief goals — the first a “sunshine” amendment, the second a measure to expand the public’s access to personnel records for state and local government employees — fell by the wayside. In addition, open-government forces barely staved off an attempt to weaken access to firing and disciplinary records for state workers.

“It’s encouraging from the standpoint that we got leadership-level sponsors to back these bills, and disappointing that the GOP wouldn’t follow through,” said John Bussian, a lawyer with the North Carolina Press Association.

“After hearing on the campaign trail from lots of Republicans that transparency was high on their priority list, we didn’t see them follow through in a way we thought they would have,” he said.

Sponsors of House Bill 87, Sunshine Amendment, mounted three unsuccessful attempts to pass the measure, first as a constitutional amendment, then as a statute. The bill made it to the House floor but was deep-sixed when Democrats and some Republicans objected.

Under the original version, H.B. 87 (and a companion measure in the Senate) would have called for an amendment codifying North Carolina’s public records law into the state constitution, the highest level of protection for those rights.

A co-sponsor of the Senate version, Republican Sen. Tommy Tucker of Union County, said the bill could be considered during the legislature’s session devoted to constitutional amendments in September. Much of that depends on how high the amendment ranks on leaders’ priority list.

“It’s going to be the importance of the pecking order as to what they think is more important than the others,” Tucker said.

A three-fifths majority — 72 votes in the House, 30 in the Senate — is needed to pass an amendment, and Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue couldn’t veto the proposal. If one passes, it would go on the ballot in 2012 for final approval by voters.

Records expansion shunted

Another top priority for sunshine enthusiasts — Senate Bill 344, Government Transparency Act of 2011 — would have built on a successful drive last year to broaden the public’s access to personnel information for state and local government employees.

Current law requires public agencies to release only the date and type of an employees’ dismissal, plus “a copy of the written notice of the final decision of the head of the department setting forth the specific acts or omissions that are the basis of the dismissal.”

S.B. 344 would expand the public’s right to know reasons for the termination. It also would loosen access to performance reviews and explanations for promotions, demotions, transfers, separations, or other changes in classification.

Public-sector groups, including the N.C. League of Municipalities and the N.C. Sheriffs’ Association, joined forces to oppose the bill, Bussian said.

“It was borderline hysteria on the part of the [public sector groups], over what they call any expansion of the public’s right to know about this stuff,” he said.

The measure didn’t make the legislature’s self-imposed crossover deadline, the drop-dead point for non-fiscal bills to clear either the House or Senate before they can be considered during next year’s short session. That means it’s dead, at least for the time being.

A near miss

In what Bussian characterized as a narrow scrape, opponents managed to scuttle Senate Bill 554, Personnel Records Technical Changes. The measure would dilute last year’s progress, Bussian said, by limiting access to personnel files to those taken on or after Oct. 1, 2007.

As a result, historical information on firings, demotions, transfers, and other actions would be unavailable to the public.

Sen. Pete Brunstetter, a Republican from Forsyth County and a powerful chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, sponsored the measure. Despite that high-profile backing, it the bill died in the Senate Finance Committee.

David N. Bass is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.