It’s time that governments shed daylight on negotiations for public employee wages, salaries and benefits, and voter approval of Proposition 1 will do that for the city of Spokane, at least.

Prop 1 seeks to amend the city charter to require collective bargaining negotiations to be open to public observation and would require public notice of such meetings under the Washington state Open Public Meetings Act. The proposition also would require that such contracts be available for public review and observation on the city’s website.

The measure encourages open and transparent government and will shine a light on how the city conducts its business, as labor costs make up a large portion of taxes and fees people and businesses pay for city services.

Expenditures on wages, salaries, and benefits in the city’s adopted 2019 budget, for example, totaled more than $184.5 million, or nearly 46% of the expenditures budgeted from the general fund and special revenue funds.

Mayor David Condon’s proposed 2020 budget anticipates contractually obligated pay increases totaling $6.7 million and budgeted benefit increases totaling another $3.7 million.

The budget proposal notes that the labor contract with the Spokane Police Guild has been in negotiations since January 2017, and there’s no assurance the actual costs of settlement won’t exceed the amounts already budgeted since 2017.

Now is the time to open such negotiations to public view as the proposed budget notes that all other labor contracts are up for negotiation in 2020.

According to the Washington Policy Center, collective bargaining transparency is the norm in nearly half of the states across the country.

Examples of such efforts in Washington state include Spokane County, the Pullman School District, the Kennewick School District, Lincoln County, Ferry County, and Kittitas County.

Spokane County Commissioner Al French says the county commission’s decision last year to open future collective bargaining negotiations to public observance was about transparency to the public, including union members.

French says the commission is optimistic that, going forward, county-labor contract negotiations will be more understandable, while enabling the public to see how its money is being spent.

“Whenever you’re dealing with other people’s money, it’s only right that people understand how you’re spending it,” he says.

So far, there’s been no legal challenges to the county measure, he says.

While the public is invited to watch the county process, they can’t participate in negotiations, which is similar to what’s being proposed in Prop 1.

“At least there will be some understanding to all elements before (labor agreements) go to the board for approval,” French says.

Prop 1 opponents argue that opening negotiations would politicize the collective bargaining process. We believe, however, that opening up the process to public observation likely would show whether any parties are acting unreasonably or in bad faith.

The public, including city employees, should have the right to see how their elected officials and labor representatives are negotiating on their behalf before final agreements are reached.

The budgetary impacts of labor agreements are clear; so too should be the negotiating process.