Our Hopes for the Right to Know

Elected candidates statewide, congratulations!

As soon as you take office, there will be so much new work to be done for Montanans, including passing new legislation, implementing new policies, and acting on campaign promises. But, we hope that you new and returning public servants won’t forget the foundation of good government: transparency.

When our framers drafted the Montana Constitution, they wisely included measures to increase public participation—namely the right to know. They knew that this right would improve the responsiveness of the government to the people, and that it would increase Montanans’ confidence and satisfaction in the government, too. As Delegate Foster said, “The government will be better for it; the people will be the better because of it.”

It is now a part of your public duty to uphold this tradition of transparency.

We hope you’re thinking about the right to know even now, two months before you will assume office for the new term. The right to know is a foundational part of our direct, participatory democracy. Montanans are going to ask you for information, including tough questions about why you made certain decisions, and you will have the opportunity (and duty) to respond directly to them.

We hope you will think about the right to know on day 1 in office. The start of your term is a great time to revise old policies or craft new ones regarding document preservation and access. You might ask how an existing policy can be improved or streamlined, or how you can categorize documents to make them easier to search when you fulfill information requests later on.

We also hope you recognize that fulfilling information requests is a core part of your public duty, not a distraction from the work of governing. Montanans have delegated to you the awesome power that your office wields, but we have done so only under the compact of the Montana Constitution. Part of that deal—part of our Declaration of Rights—is our ability to check in on your work through the right to know.

We hope you see the timely disclosure of documents as a duty as well. Your commitment to transparency includes responding to information requests quickly, rather than letting processes drag on toward statutory deadlines.

Finally, we hope you view the right to know as a document disclosure provision, not a document withholding provision. The text of the right to know is clear on this front, “No person shall be deprived of the right to examine documents . . . except in cases in which the demand of individual privacy clearly exceeds the merits of public disclosure.”

Staying committed to transparency may seem daunting, but there are plenty of resources available to help you adjust to your requirements under the right to know. Current and former civil servants, elected officials, and nonprofits (including us!) can offer advice and war stories to help you continue the Montana tradition of promoting transparent governance.

 Montanans chose you to lead our state. Good luck, and we are looking forward to seeing you serve!