The Wichita Eagle is reporting that Governor Sam Brownback's budget director Shawn Sullivan shared a working copy of Gov. Brownback's new budget proposals with lobbyists three weeks before unveiling them to lawmakers. Sullivan used a private Yahoo! E-mail account.
More below the orange burning Kansas Sunshine Act.
According to the Eagle:
The governor was not included on Sullivan’s budget e-mail. Sullivan said that’s because they spoke about the budget daily during November and December and Brownback did not need the same update.
Other recipients of the e-mail include Hawley; Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer; Landon Fulmer, who then was the governor’s chief of staff; Jon Hummel, who replaced Fulmer; Kenny Wilk, chair of the Kansas Board of Regents; Tim Shallenburger, the governor’s legislative liaison; Chuck Knapp, who was appointed Colyer’s chief of staff in December; Kim Borchers, the governor’s appointments secretary; and Kent Glasscock, president of Kansas State University’s Institute for Commercialization.
With the exception of Glasscock, who received the e-mail on his KSU e-mail address, everyone received it on a non-government e-mail address. Although it was government business, Borchers received it on her official Brownback campaign e-mail address.
Sullivan said he accidentally typed in Borchers’ campaign address and that he only sent it to private e-mail addresses because many staff members were at home for the holidays.
While Sullivan claims he did it through his private account because it was over the Christmas holiday, transparency advocates argue the E-mailing exploits a loophole in Kansas Sunshine Laws to avoid public scrutiny.
Sullivan made light of the issue, saying he would only communicate via Twitter in the future.
The article also notes that:
Last April, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported that [David] Kensinger [the governor's former chief of staff who is now a lobbyist for the Club for Growth] was the subject of a federal probe for influence peddling at the Capitol.
Governor Rick Scott of Florida is already the subject of a lawsuit claiming he tried to circumvent Florida's sunshine laws by using private E-mails. The Eagle notes it had a records request for private E-mails into Governor Brownback's office since 2012, but only obtained this one from an outside source.
The article is a fascinating study in cronyism — it is worth reading the whole thing.