Nineteenth-century American lawyer, journalist and politician Gideon J. Tucker had a warning: “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”

President Ronald Reagan spoke of the nine most terrifying words in the English language: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”

A quote attributed to President George Washington implores: “Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

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These nonpartisan observations, and similar gems, remind us that government must be controlled by the governed. Like fire, it should not be left alone to chart a rogue path of destruction.

Because the governed must monitor their political representatives, laws ensuring transparency are American as apple pie and grandma’s feather bed.

That’s why we hoped Gov. Jared Polis would proudly veto Senate Bill 157 – a proposal that should never have landed on his desk. Polis talks like a champion of average people, then he takes from them their full rights to monitor government.

The bill, sponsored by three of the Legislature’s more radicalized Democrats, will dilute the state’s inadequate open meetings laws. Colorado’s 1972 Sunshine Law says, “the formation of public policy is public business and may not be conducted in secret.”

Senate President Steve Fenberg, Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie and state Rep. Chris deGruy Kennedy and other sponsors consider the sunshine law a nuisance.

Maybe they don’t like parents knowing about their opposition to harsher punishments for rapists of children. Maybe they don’t like people knowing their contempt for the Second Amendment.

They clearly don’t like Coloradans knowing about their scheme to curtail transparency. They pushed this through with almost no public input, inviting only two groups to participate in conversations before the bill’s introduction.

“The policymaking function of the general assembly is furthered by the often informal, direct flow and sharing of information, research, and ideas between and among legislators concerning policy positions and legislation,” the bill explains.

With this law, what’s said in the smoke-filled room will stay in the smoke-filled room.

The law will exempt communication among legislators, “electronic or otherwise,” from open meetings laws. “Public business” will not apply to matters that are “by nature interpersonal, administrative, or logistical or that concern personnel, planning, process, training, or operations, as long as the merits or substance of matters that are expressly defined as being public business are not discussed.”

Of course, they want guaranteed privacy. That way they can rule the people, instead of representing and serving them. Lack of transparency has ruined a litany of societies, as it bolsters authoritarianism.

“A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity,” the Dalai Lama said.

“If corruption is a disease, transparency is a central part of its treatment,” said Kofi Annan, former secretary-general of the United Nations.

“The truth will always be our shield against corruption,” said Oprah Winfrey.

SB 157 moves us away from open governance and toward corruption. Polis had a unique chance to stand as a defender of the people and the open process designed to serve them.

By signing this bill into law, Polis destroyed the public’s right to full transparency. He, more than the Legislature’s predictably extreme leadership, took from the people their basic right to watch a government in action. So much for “Of, By and For the People.”

Denver Gazette Editorial Board