If Kansans don’t know what their state government is doing, it should be their own fault, not the result of closed meetings or hidden emails.

That’s the spirit of a pledge that a new coalition of open government advocates is asking Kansas legislators to sign. The pledge doesn’t include support of any specific legislation but it asks lawmakers to keep in mind throughout the legislative session that they are working on behalf of the Kansas public and whatever they are doing should be done in an open and transparent manner.

Lawrence residents can be proud that one of their local representatives, Rep. John Wilson, was one of the first two signers of the “Open Kansas” pledge last week.

Although the pledge includes no commitments on legislation, a couple of issues that are scheduled for hearings today in the Senate Judiciary Committee certainly fit the spirit of “Open Kansas.”

One measure would close an important loophole that allows state officials to evade the Kansas Open Records Act by using their private email accounts to conduct public business. Senate Bill 361 would make officials’ communication about state business subject to the Open Records Act “regardless of form, characteristics or location.”

The committee also is set to take up an open meetings measure sponsored by another Lawrence legislator, Sen. Marci Francisco. That bill, SB 360, would require public bodies to provide more specific information about why they are going into closed executive sessions. For example, instead of saying they are going to discuss personnel matters, Francisco told a Wichita newspaper, they “would have to say something like unauthorized use of a credit card.” The goal is to give the public some idea what’s actually being discussed behind closed doors.

The spirit of open government expressed in the coalition pledge might also ease some internal dealings in state government. Legislators recently expressed surprise and concern over a couple of major financial actions that were completed without legislative input or oversight. One was a $400 million bond issue by the Kansas Department of Transportation that calls for only the interest on the bonds to be paid for the first decade. The other was a $19.9 million lease deal that the Department of Administration signed with the Bank of America to finance the construction of a new power plant to serve state office buildings in Topeka. The action is tied to the Department of Administration’s plan to demolish the Docking State Office Building, which houses the current power plant — a plan that hasn’t received legislative approval.

When it comes to government actions, legislators don’t like to be surprised — and neither does the public. Transparency is the key to government accountability. The open government pledge is a timely reminder that all state officials should be willing to support.