Making government better

Published 12:01 am Thursday, September 15, 2011

Many voters consider “government accountability” an oxymoron. It is, nonetheless, a concept that actually is applied effectively from time to time.

When that happens, good things result — waste is rooted out, corruption exposed, inefficiency laid bare. Government becomes more responsive to citizens, who get more value for their tax dollars.

As the state’s leading watchdog for government accountability, state Auditor Brian Sonntag has gotten under the skin of many a public official. Perhaps the best guage of his effectiveness is the evident dislike he draws from so many of them, particularly some legislators and agency heads who view him mostly as an overbearing meddler.

Many of them no doubt took quiet pleasure in Sonntag’s announcement Monday that he won’t seek a sixth term next year.

They shouldn’t get too smug. Sonntag’s powerful advocacy for open government and leadership on comprehensive performance audits have set high new standards and public expectations that will be hard to undo. His successor, whoever it is, will have a strong mandate to continue along the same path.

Indeed, voters have been overwhelmingly supportive of Sonntag’s work, re-electing him three of the last four times by a margin of nearly 2-to-1.

Sonntag’s most visible work has been on performance audits of state and local agencies, which voters gave his office authority to do in 2005 through Initiative 900, setting aside a portion of sales tax revenues to assure independence. Ideas for saving billions of dollars have resulted (though regrettably, because the auditor lacks enforcement power, most have yet to be implemented). A famous 2007 performance audit of the Port of Seattle exposed lax practices and sparked investigations that uncovered several cases of contracting fraud, leading to substantial reforms there and, likely, preventing abuses elsewhere.

Sonntag has also been one of the state’s strongest voices for government openness and transparency. A Democrat, he joined Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna in proposing legislation to require the recording of closed sessions of public councils and boards, so that if allegations arose that such discussions violated state open meetings laws, a judge could decide if they were valid. Local governments have lobbied successfully against it so far, but we suspect public support for it is strong. Sonntag should put another push on the agenda for his final year in office.

Meanwhile, his accountability work will continue. As Sonntag noted in his announcement this week, citizens are now “aware of what audits can do to make government work better for all of us.”

Especially when they have a dogged advocate behind them.