Actually, though, it took the N.C. Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform to come up with this suggestion for making the General Assembly operate more like, well, a body of elected representatives as opposed to a secret lodge of the International Order of the Bullfrogs:

"All meetings must be held in meeting rooms in the Legislative Building or Legislative Office Building -- not around a member's desk, in their office or in a hallway."

Brilliant, you have to admit.

Not that the coalition stops there. In the interest of having legislative budget deliberations take place in the open, where the people who sent the budgeteers to Raleigh in the first place can keep a better eye on 'em, the reformers offer several upgrades to the Jones Street ground rules.

To summarize: Don't let the budget bills cooked up by legislative chiefs be rammed through before ordinary members, and the public, have had a chance to figure out what's in them. Keep policy decisions that don't involve money out of the budget bills. (Such "special provisions" have been used to scratch all sorts of legislative itches.)

Tell folks when and where committees will be meeting. Let the public listen in via the Internet or broadcast. Put budget info online a.s.a.p.

If the coalition's rules had been operative, then it's fair to assume that The N&O's Dan Kane wouldn't have been tossed from a meeting the other day at which Sen. Tony Rand (who did the tossing) and other legislative bigwigs were getting the latest (bad) budget news.

Revenues were off, or so the governor's office reportedly told the group. So how would the lawmakers respond?

Rand and his colleagues might not appreciate having the public looking over their shoulders while they make hard decisions that inevitably mean someone's going to be disappointed.

But it's easier to gauge the merit of those decisions when priorities are debated in the open. If a meeting can be monitored through a Web connection, then even if Dan Kane has to be on duty somewhere else, there's a chance for some valuable public oversight.

"Lobbying and government reform" took on greater urgency in Raleigh after the corruption scandals surrounding former House Speaker Jim Black, now biding his time in a federal prison camp. Ethics rules have since been tightened and lobbyists put on shorter leashes, but the coalition sees work yet to be done.

It hasn't escaped notice as this year's campaign season heats up that the scandals had a decidedly Democratic tinge. Republicans who haven't yet gotten around to it will realize soon enough that a promise to muck out the stables after years of Democratic rule could be music to voters' ears.

So give Beverly Perdue credit for taking the initiative and squeezing into the reformers' pew, clean government hymnbook in hand. It's a smart place for the Democratic candidate for governor to sit. And it's good to see her making the effort.

A June 23 letter from the lieutenant governor to the co-chairs of the Legislative Ethics Committee picks up on several recommendations that happen to be on the reform coalition's agenda.

The new State Ethics Commission, Perdue says, is "seriously understaffed" for the task of reviewing some 4,500 Statements of Economic Interest filed by state officials and of issuing advisory opinions dealing with ethics questions.

"The price of having tough new statutes that address government ethics is making sure there are sufficient staff and resources on hand to give timely and well-considered advice to ensure departments, officials and employees follow the law," she writes. Hard to argue with that.

Perdue also calls for movement toward the broadcast of state government meetings, as she says a dozen other states are doing. She says "revolving door" statutes should be strengthened to head off improper dealings between state officials and private businesses for whom the officials could go to work. And she says legislators need to be kept from hitting up lobbyists for contributions to charities.

"Unfortunately," says Perdue, "the public perception is that lobbyists contributing to charities at legislators' behest is just another way for lobbyists to gain access and curry favor with lawmakers." And, she could have added, for legislators to misuse their own influence in self-serving fashion, as some have done.

Perdue's Republican opponent, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, doesn't miss many tricks, so we should expect him to become a familiar face at the reformers' revival. Sister Bev and Brother Pat, come on down!

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