Dallas Morning News editor honored by FOI group

11:12 PM CDT on Thursday, September 20, 2007

Staff and Wire Reports

AUSTIN – Texans will decide in November whether to require the Legislature to record its votes, a ballot proposition championed by a Dallas Morning News editor honored Thursday by the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.

Keven Ann Willey, vice president and editorial page editor for The News, received the foundation's annual James Madison Award for those who show appreciation and respect for the First Amendment.

She and her staff have been pushing for recorded legislative votes and mobilizing civic groups on the subject for years.

"We are very grateful to the foundation for recognizing Keven Willey's leadership on recorded votes," said Bob Mong, editor of The News. "She and her staff have been working hard on behalf of the citizens of Texas."

In the past two legislative sessions, the House and Senate have set in their own requirements that votes on final passage of bills be recorded, showing how individual legislators decided. That replaced a previous practice of allowing nonrecorded voice votes.

Open government advocates, wanting more than a rule set by the Legislature that could be changed, favored including the requirement in the Texas Constitution.

The Legislature sent the issue to voters, putting the proposed amendment, listed as Proposition 11, on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, who pushed the measure in the House, said he's working to ensure that Texans don't "take this for granted."

"A lot of people think this will sail over the goal line, but I'm always nervous," he said.

The measure wouldn't apply to ceremonial legislation and some local-interest bills. It would provide for public access on the Internet to the recorded votes.