Need More Transparency in Government: Former US Rep Hilliard writes Birmingham Bingo Ordinance

Here you have another case where someone tried to sneak something by a government body, only for it to come out after the fact. You’re better off putting the information out there at the time then to have everyone feel like they were deceived after the fact. The story is this, former U.S. Rep. Earl Hilliard is now an attorney representing gambling interests in Birmingham, he approached a city councilman with a draft of an ordinance to allow certain forms of electronic bingo in the City of Birmingham. The problem is this, the city councilman, then presented the ordinance as something he drafted and the ordinance was passed, with no knowledge by the rest of the council of where the proposal originated.

Council President Carole Smitherman said members should have been told about Hilliard’s participation and his connection to bingo operators.

“Transparency is important to the council. Councilor Montgomery said he wrote the ordinance, so I had no reason to believe otherwise,” said Smitherman. She abstained from voting on the ordinance last week, saying she believed sections of the ordinance were vague or flawed.

While Hilliard’s involvement is not illegal, it’s not good government, said William Stewart, political science professor emeritus at the University of Alabama.

“I don’t think that’s an appropriate thing to do where someone has a vested interest,” he said. “Otherwise it’s suspicious that it may have been drafted to benefit one’s own client. And Birmingham’s city council has gotten so much criticism that you would think they would do everything they could to avoid situations that would cause criticism.”

Whether this deception will result in the repeal of the ordinance, I don’t know, but it certainly seems like the issue should come back up for discussion and the ordinance should be combed over and debated more thoroughly given these developments.

via Former Congressman Earl Hilliard Hilliard aided in creating Birmingham’s electronic bingo law – Breaking News from The Birmingham News – al.com.

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