Let the sun shine

This from C-J:

...Circuit Judge Irv Maze found the [Jefferson County] board's action to be a “willful” violation of the state's open meetings law. He said the board ignored previous rulings, including a recent finding by the state attorney general that such evaluations must be in the sunshine, except when they might lead to discipline or dismissal.

The judge also said the board came up with its reasons for closing the meeting after making the decision to close it, and ordered them to pay attorney's fees to this newspaper, which filed a complaint with Attorney General Jack Conway after the board's June 29 action. The board took the case to court when Mr. Conway sided with the newspaper. Judge Maze concurred with Mr. Conway.

This is not a case about recovering attorney's fees.

It is a case about doing the people's business, with the people's money, within eyeshot and earshot of the public.

If the newspaper was acting as an agent of the people in its puruit of openness, the board went against its charge as representatives of the people when they took this business behind closed doors.

Closed doors suggest there is something to hide.

Closed doors are antithetical to democracy.

There should be no move by the legislature to try to close these doors even a little, or to add limiting asterisks to the law, no matter how “convenient,” in the word of Judge Maze, that might seem to be to government officials....