Wyoming Constitution; Article 1, Section 26...Treason against the state shall consist only in levying war against it, or in adhering to its enemies, or in giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court; nor shall any person be attained of treason by the legislature.

 

 

 

February 15, 2005

 

 

            The topic of the day is…power! Political power that is, and in this case the power of the statewide elected officials. Those would be the Governor, the Secretary of State, the State Treasurer, the State Auditor, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

 

            In our current governmental scheme of things, this group of five must work as a team on a variety of governmental aspects, but the Gov is the big dog on that block. This does not sit well with some of the other elected officials, and so some of them have been agitating for legislative changes to their situation.

 

            One of these efforts is Senate File #155; State elected officials-procurement. Currently the elected officials have to obtain services and good through the same process as the rest of state government. If this bill were to pass, they would be exempt from many of the safeguards currently in place. A very bad idea!

 

            Procurement of goods and services is mostly overseen by an agency of state government by the name of the Department of Administration and Information, with the legal oversight provided by the office of the Attorney General. If the bill passes, elected officials will be able to circumvent the oversight that now exists, and operate independently.

 

            The text is easy to understand, go to…

 

http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2005/Introduced/SF0155.pdf

 

 

            Perhaps it’s just a coincidence, but when we had a Republican Governor recently, none of these ‘grab more power’ ideas came to the surface. As soon as we elect a Democrat to be Governor, then we see a wide range of attempts to gather up more political clout for the other elected officials. Hmmmmmmm.

 

            Hang in there, Citizens!!

 

Keith