Don't shut open meetings
Lawsuits — they're everywhere, and they sometimes seem to deal with the most trivial issues.
Burn yourself with hot coffee and sue. Gain weight from eating fast food and sue. The list of crazy lawsuits goes on and on.
But one lawsuit filed last week isn't trivial at all. This one deals with your right to know what your government is doing.
The lawsuit was filed last Wednesday by 14 different Kansas news organizations, including the Associated Press, the Kansas Press Association, The Wichita Eagle, and The Salina Journal — to name just a few.
What are these groups protesting? Secret meetings being held by Governor-elect Kathleen Sebelius.
Talk about getting off on the wrong foot with your future governor.
Sebelius has established several committees, or teams, whose job is to study state governmental agencies. They're trying to determine how Kansas can solve the budget mess it's currently in and where it can cut funding.
What's the problem? Sebelius has closed the doors on these meetings. No member of the public or press is allowed in them.
Thus, the lawsuit.
What's wrong with this picture? A few things.
For starters, these discussions are about public government. Public money — tax money. Therefore, the public has the right to know what these individuals are talking about.
But maybe more to the point, these secret meetings are illegal.
The Kansas Open Meetings Act says this:
"In recognition of the fact that a representative government is dependent upon an informed electorate, it is declared to be the policy of this state that meetings for the conduct of governmental affairs and the transaction of governmental business be open to the public."
Kansas citizens should be very suspicious when their next governor refuses to let her constituents attend meetings that discuss the use of their tax dollars.
This lawsuit is a no-brainer: What Sebelius' committees are doing is illegal, and they should be stopped.
Anybody that conducts secret meetings is violating the law.
Now if you're familiar with public meetings at all, you might say, "What about the executive session?"
True, a governmental body can call an "executive session," which means that people attending the meeting (media, residents, others) are asked to leave the meeting for a certain length of time.
But that's only for specific reasons, such as discussing a non-elected employee or the sale and purchase of property.
And even under those circumstances, keep this in mind: A governmental body is never required to call an executive session. They only choose to.
The public is right to be suspicious when a body continually calls executive sessions for seemingly trivial subjects or matters dealing with tax money.
The bottom line is this: Open meetings — just like open records — are meant to stay open for anybody to attend. Anything else is against the law.
If the media groups driving this lawsuit don't win their case, it will be a sad day for our state.
— JENNIFER WILSON
