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Letter: Record the lobbyists’ meet-ups

The Columbian
Published: May 27, 2015, 5:00pm

The public certainly has every right to know who is trying to influence and pressure our legislators. Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver, has the right idea of requiring an electronic record of expenses be kept for all meetings. His efforts were reported in the May 18 story “Following money? Good luck with that.”

A much better idea would be to require that all lobbyist meetings would be mandatory to be videotaped. The files would then be uploaded to a website where any citizen could see and hear exactly who is trying to buy influence and exactly what was said and if any gifts or meals or other considerations changed hands.

The technology for this exists now; witness on YouTube where thousands of hours of dog tricks and such are viewed daily. This would utilize the technology for a very beneficial purpose instead of mostly fluff.

No doubt they will complain this would invade privacy, but such meetings should enjoy no right of privacy.

Bob Waber

Battle Ground

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