Yesterday, the Freedom Foundation “challenged the Governor’s ‘Office of Financial Management’ (OFM) to adopt a formal rule allowing public access” to contract negotiations with government employee union leaders. The Freedom Foundation’s challenge includes a petition to the Office of Financial Management advocating for public access to union negotiations.
The Freedom Foundation points out that state “law allows Governor Inslee to hold these meetings in secret, but the law does not require it.” By petitioning the OFM to adopt a formal rule requiring public access to union negotiations, the Freedom Foundation hopes to:
- Prevent Governor Inslee from using bargaining as a political payoff
- Show citizens the spending priorities, service level priorities and accountability expectations of the parties to the negotiations
- Show citizens the impending financial obligations which result from these multi-billion dollar agreements
- Streamline negotiations by diluting extreme positions
- Show an accurate cause for stalled negotiations
You can join the Freedom Foundation’s efforts by taking their survey here.
Leave a Reply