Recorded votes proposal highlighted at open government meeting

Sept. 20, 2007, 4:27PM

By Kelley Shannon, Associated Press Writer

AUSTIN — Texans will decide in November whether to require the Legislature to hold recorded votes, a ballot proposition championed by a Dallas journalist honored Thursday by the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.

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

Willey and her staff have been editorializing in favor of recorded legislative votes and mobilizing civic groups on the subject for five years.

"It took a lot of voices to get this issue on the ballot," said Rodger Jones, an opinion columnist at the Morning News, who accepted the award on Willey's behalf.

In the past two legislative sessions, in 2005 and 2007, 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 non-recorded voice votes that kept citizens from knowing how their lawmakers stood.

Open government advocates said they wanted more than simply a rule set by the Legislature that could be changed. They wanted the requirement in the Texas Constitution.

Rep. Dan Branch, the Dallas Republican who pushed the proposed constitutional amendment in the House, said the issue was important to citizens throughout the state. It wasn't so obvious to Capitol news reporters accustomed to "insider baseball," he said.

Branch urged support for the measure, known as Proposition 11, in the Nov. 6 election.

"I encourage everyone to remind their friends and not take this for granted," Branch said. "A lot of people think this will sail over the goal line, but I'm always nervous."

Prop 11 wouldn't apply to ceremonial legislation and some local interest bills. It would provide for public access on the Internet to the recorded votes.

Some supporters acknowledge they wanted an even stronger requirement that would have forced recorded votes on amendments to bills and on preliminary passage of bills, when much of the debate takes place.

The Senate version by Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, did have that requirement, but the House would only agree to recorded votes on final passage.

The Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas honored Willey during its annual conference, a daylong series of discussions on open government and reviews of what the Legislature did for and against open government this year.

For the first time, the conference included the presentation of the Texas Gavel Awards by the State Bar of Texas.

Those awards for major metropolitan news markets went to: Chuck Lindell of the Austin American-Statesman; Brooks Egerton of The Dallas Morning News; Lee Hancock of The Dallas Morning News; and Ginger Allen of KTVT-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Other news market winners were Carlton Stowers for coverage at the Abilene Reporter-News and Ryan Myers at The Beaumont Enterprise.

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On the Net:

Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas at http://www.foift.org