Gerth: This Republican did what all state lawmakers should do. He let us in on his secret

When you're a young journalist, you're taught to look for the oddities in life because those are the stories that people want to read.

The old maxim says you don't write stories when a dog bites a man − happens all the time.

But if a man bites a dog ...

On Monday, in Frankfort, a man bit a dog ... so to speak.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Whitney Westerfield was preparing to hold a hearing on House Bill 5, the big crime bill that is going to cost you billions of dollars but really won’t cure crime, and he did something that rarely happens in the state Capitol.

He did something right.

Westerfield prepared a committee substitute bill and then he told us about it in advance.

Westerfield posted the entire 76-page document on his “X” feed giving everyone an opportunity to pore over it, figure out what it does and to show up in committee the next day when he brought it up for a vote.

It would have allowed families of murder victims to ask that the gun used to kill their loved ones be destroyed rather than auctioned; it would have limited the number of crimes that would have made people who commit them subject to the three-strike rule; and he would have made clear that someone convicted of car-jacking couldn’t be convicted of first-degree robbery for the same crime.

Westerfield’s changes would have made the bill better – but not as good as it could have been if Westerfield did what he really wanted to do.

He would have gotten rid of the provisions that enhance penalties for those who are convicted of three violent crimes, struck the provision that criminalizes homelessness, and eliminated the clause that outlaws charitable bail organizations, among other things.

The "bottom line is that these provisions are not data driven, in Kentucky or anywhere else, and, to varying degrees, these provisions are expensive and unnecessarily harsh,” he told me.

Unfortunately, his changes failed.

Westerfield is something of an oddity in the Republican Party.

He’s not a knee-jerk reactionary on most issues, especially those involving criminal justice, and he refuses to fall in line and defend Donald Trump and his lies about the 2020 election or turn a blind eye to the criminal or just plain nasty things the former president has done.

One day, Westerfield and those like him may be mentioned in the same breath as the ivory-billed woodpecker, the Western Black Rhinoceros and Matt Bevin’s political career.

Extinct. Kaput.

It’s for that reason, it shouldn’t surprise us that Westerfield did what is right by publishing his proposed changes in advance. It also shouldn’t surprise us that Westerfield isn’t running for reelection.

Here’s what normally happens in Frankfort.

A committee chairman posts a bill for passage in his committee. He opens the discussion by announcing he has a “committee sub,” which is essentially a rewritten bill that few people have seen at that point – normally a few legislators, a lobbyist or two who agree with the committee chairman, and the bill drafter.

After the sponsor of the bill presents the committee sub, people who come before the committee to testify about the measure. Many of them say things like, “I prepared my remarks addressing the bill as it was first introduced. Because I haven’t yet seen the committee sub, I don’t know if any of these remarks are on point.”

Then, the committee passes the committee substitute without anyone in the room other than the committee members, the bill’s sponsor and a couple of friendly lobbyists having seen the new bill – and many of the committee members have only had a few minutes to look at the substitute.

Legislative staff members will often tell reporters who are trying to inform the public about what is going on in Frankfort that they aren’t allowed to see the committee substitute until AFTER the committee passes it.

I asked Westerfield why it is so often done that way.

“I think the primary reason it’s not done more often is because of time. Sometimes edits happen to bills and subs closer to the meeting,” he said.

He suggested committee chairmen could require that amendments and substitutes be filed 24 hours or even 48 hours in advance, giving people an opportunity to review the new provisions.

He’s kinder than I am.

Having watched this dance for 30 years, I’d say legislators don’t do what Westerfield did more often because they like to work in the dark, when no one can see what they’re doing. They don’t want you to see their bills in advance because if you speak up loudly, you can force them to back off.

Knowledge is power and they know this. And they don’t want you, the voter, to have power.

Why else would the Republican supermajority speed bills through the process – sometimes passing bills on the floor the same day they pass them out of committee? And why would they do that early in the legislative session, when there is no need to rush things through.

Westerfield acknowledged one reason for keeping the rewritten bills secret until the last minute: “that’s politics.”

But he doesn’t see that as a good reason to cut the public out of the process.

“I believe proposed substitutes should be shared publicly, especially on contentious bills, with as much lead time prior to the meeting as possible,” he said.

He’s right, but it's not going to happen.

The politicians love their power too much and they're not going to give it away. But I didn't have to tell you that; it's a case of a dog biting a man.

Joseph Gerth can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at jgerth@courierjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky Republican did what all lawmakers should do. Be transparent