Walter Baker was an early supporter of transparency in government.

Working quietly behind the scenes in 2006, Baker coached the Concerned Members of the Kentucky Historical Society in their bid to bring transparency to the governance of the Commonwealth’s Historical Society.

The Society’s members wanted to open the election process of the board of directors for the State agency. The agency functions in a dual capacity, both as state agency and as a non profit corporation. Directors are appointed by political appointment. Members believed their interests on the board were under-represented and under-served, and they were being denied democratic due process in the election of the Society’s directors.

Baker met privately with the Concerned Members at his offices in Bowling Green, offering them advise on addressing the issue. Baker himself was recently retired from the Historical Society’s board, after serving the Society devotedly for many years. The Society had moved to block the members access to its directors, after members filed an Open Records request for contact information and had received an opinion from the Attorney General, favorable to their request. Baker thought the Open Records request advisable, prior to taking direct action.

As the members were further obstructed by the Society, they followed Baker’s advice procedurally. Baker was generous in the advice he provided, never charging for any legal advice. The members elected to withhold retention of Baker as their attorney, while they followed his recommendations for arriving at an amicable solution with the Historical Society.

In an unusually surprising maneuver to quash the members request, the Kentucky Historical Society sued its own members in Franklin County Circuit Court, (No.06-CI-00365). On the eve of his retirement, Judge Roger Crittenden abruptly dismissed the case on a technicality. The Concerned Members considered employing Baker to proceed with suit against the Society, but then abandoned the suit, as well as their membership in the Kentucky Historical Society.

When meeting the Concerned Members, Walter Baker also was generous in offering applicable lessons from history. He saw the members’ actions to effect governmental transparency as a continuum of Kentucky’s early adoption of self governance. He offered the historical perspective. The lessons having been shared, and the advice rendered, Baker then proudly gave the Concerned Members an endearing review of his own career as a Kentucky lawyer and politician.

Baker was as much about inspiration, as he was about practicality.