Just wonderin' -- Public business in the open or the dark?
We wonder if public officials were watching and listening Tuesday when Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a brief supporting the state’s Open Meetings Act.
Several cities — and a curiously high number of elected officials who want to hide public business from the public — are hoping the act will be held unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds.
The AG contends the First Amendment guarantees free speech, not secret speech, and points out that what these cities are hoping for is the ability to speak in secret about public issues.
There is some good news for the taxpayers of Texas. Not all elected officials want to hide in the dark. At least a few support the long-standing law that requires them to conduct public business in public.
The West Texas town of Big Lake earlier this year backed out of a misguided and misrepresented lawsuit that seeks to strike down a key part of the Open Meetings Act.
Several cities and their elected officials have filed suit to remove criminal penalties from the law for public officials who illegally discuss public business in private. They don’t want any real sanctions if they freeze out annoying taxpayers when they discuss things like which bid they should accept on a big project or whether the neighborhood school will be closed. They want to settle such issues in private, where taxpaying citizens won’t know who influenced them or what deals were made.
Abbott is determined to preserve the public’s right to know.
Other plaintiffs in lawsuits challenging the act should follow Big Lake’s example.
Other taxing entities —city councils, school boards and commissioners courts — could go one step further and do what a small city near Houston did. Council members in West University Place not only wouldn’t join the lawsuit, they passed a resolution supporting the vital Open Meetings Act.
The act must not be gutted by politicians who don’t trust the people who elected them.
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Responses to “Just wonderin’ . . .” are welcome. Signed comments on any topic are invited for publication in The Leader’s “Letters to the Editor” column. Or, if you, too, are wondering about a matter of community interest or something out of the ordinary, pass along your query. The address is P.O. Box 600, Graham, TX 76450, or gninews@grahamleader.com.
We wonder if public officials were watching and listening Tuesday when Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a brief supporting the state’s Open Meetings Act.
Several cities — and a curiously high number of elected officials who want to hide public business from the public — are hoping the act will be held unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds.
The AG contends the First Amendment guarantees free speech, not secret speech, and points out that what these cities are hoping for is the ability to speak in secret about public issues.
There is some good news for the taxpayers of Texas. Not all elected officials want to hide in the dark. At least a few support the long-standing law that requires them to conduct public business in public.
The West Texas town of Big Lake earlier this year backed out of a misguided and misrepresented lawsuit that seeks to strike down a key part of the Open Meetings Act.
Several cities and their elected officials have filed suit to remove criminal penalties from the law for public officials who illegally discuss public business in private. They don’t want any real sanctions if they freeze out annoying taxpayers when they discuss things like which bid they should accept on a big project or whether the neighborhood school will be closed. They want to settle such issues in private, where taxpaying citizens won’t know who influenced them or what deals were made.
Abbott is determined to preserve the public’s right to know.
Other plaintiffs in lawsuits challenging the act should follow Big Lake’s example.
Other taxing entities —city councils, school boards and commissioners courts — could go one step further and do what a small city near Houston did. Council members in West University Place not only wouldn’t join the lawsuit, they passed a resolution supporting the vital Open Meetings Act.
The act must not be gutted by politicians who don’t trust the people who elected them.
* * *
Responses to “Just wonderin’ . . .” are welcome. Signed comments on any topic are invited for publication in The Leader’s “Letters to the Editor” column. Or, if you, too, are wondering about a matter of community interest or something out of the ordinary, pass along your query. The address is P.O. Box 600, Graham, TX 76450, or gninews@grahamleader.com.