Laura Thielen is changing the way the Senate confirmation process works as she prepares for a public hearing on Carleton Ching’s controversial nomination to head the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
KITV reported last night that Thielen will be opening up the process by making information about Ching publicly available online in advance of the confirmation hearing scheduled for March 11.
Close to 1000 people have sent in testimony.
At last count, it was running 9 to 1 against him. Sen. Lauren Thielen wants to give voice to the public’s concerns.
She intends to begin posting the testimony online well before the Wednesday hearing.
“We ask the nominees a number of questions in writing as well as get their resumes. so we will be posting that on Monday,” said Thielen.
Thielen’s action came just a week after a post here noted the lack of information available to the public about the governor’s nominees (“State confirmation process lacks key information“).
That post noted that each nomination is sent to the legislature as a “governor’s message,” which contains nothing beyond the nominees name and the position they are being nominated to.
Nominations across the street at the city, by contrast, are accompanied by a resume with the educational background and work experience of the nominee.
We can hope that Thielen’s decision to make the process more transparent has the support of the Senate leadership and will set a precedent for future nominations.
The public would certainly benefit if that were to be the case.
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Power to the people vs. Ige and the Corporate Machine! With this nominee Ige has shown he has no limits as to how far he will go to satisfy his developer masters.
900 no and 100 yes. Why would Ms. Thielen expect to get a different response at the confirmation hearing? It’s not like it’s a close call.
I was so glad to hear that Senator Thielen is putting information online earlier than usual. This is a move in the right direction.
I love how quickly Ige has gone from the underdog to the Corporate Machine.
I don’t think that’s what has happened. It’s more like he’s the deer in the headlights and is trying to hide in the background rather than tackle these sensitive issues head on. Too much reliance on other insiders who are making some bad choices on his behalf.
Good thing the public has the Thielen’s in the Legislature..wisdom and common sense.
I have been quite impressed with Senator Thielen.