Open government benefits voters

WorldWideWebb
Willis Webb
TPA President's Column

Most of us fight battles over open government regularly. Sometimes it’s because access to public information is denied to our newspaper. More often, it’s because some well-meaning but misinformed public servant has decided to take some item of public business behind closed doors.

It is always extremely gratifying to win those battles and if there’s a little extra reward in it, an editor-publisher is allowed to become ecstatic.

Over the past several years the commissioners court in Our Town has had a habit that is illegal in the context of the Open Meetings Act. On the day of their regular monthly meeting, the agenda is long (that could be a whole ’nother column) and the habit is to break for lunch, then go to lunch together — all of them, the county judge and the four commissioners.

On occasion Julie and I would eat lunch at the same restaurant and, invariably, we’d approach the “court’s table” and ask with a smile, “Did y’all post an agenda for this meeting?”

Recently one of the commissioners told us they’d begun to split up for lunch because we teased them about violating the Open Meetings Act. That’s a pretty good victory without an editorial campaign.

However, there’s one better than that.

Our Town’s school board and administration held an executive session prior to EVERY board meeting for years and years. It was going on when we got here 13 years ago. However, last year, after years of pointing out that executive sessions should be limited according to law, the disagreement with the administration and the board erupted into open warfare. We even got a letter with an informal Texas Attorney General’s ruling that said board members could talk in general terms (except for records specific personnel asked to keep closed) about what went on behind closed doors.

Two trustees decided to talk about what went on in a couple of those meetings.  The rest of the board condemned the other two in a written statement given to the newspaper. They did this despite our “gift” of a copy of the AG’s letter.

Two months later, one of the trustees who spoke out was re-elected; one of those condemning him was defeated. This year two more of those involved in criticizing those who spoke out chose not to seek re-election.

In the process of debating this issue of closed meetings, we learned that when new members came on the board, one training session by this area’s regional education center taught them to debate and reach agreement on all issues in executive session. The reason, they said, was “to present a united front on behalf of the children” in the open meeting.

The resulting broadside from Our Town’s newspaper finally brought the trustees to the realization they were conducting business illegally. They agreed to discontinue having executive sessions at every meeting and to have them only when an issue truly warranted it within the parameters of the Open Meetings Act.

Okay, so we won a battle. Now what followed that made us so ecstatic?

A trustee shared with me that, during the search to replace our retiring superintendent, he had a particular assignment with a narrowed down list of candidates.

The trustee’s job required him to call newspapers in the area where a candidate for the job worked and to find out about the candidate’s relationship with the media and how he handled media relations as a professional. I broke into a big grin when the trustee told me about his experience. He forgave me my moment of ecstasy.

But, that ecstatic moment has already been extended. The trustee told me of one particular candidate who had been given sterling marks for his media relations.

Later, when the board announced its choice (naming one finalist using a loophole in our public information regulations), this trustee told me the ultimate choice was the one he’d found had the glowing report from a newspaper.

Our delight grew as the new superintendent (who comes to work July 1) has already had a two-hour and a 45-minute session with Our Town’s newspaper.

Beyond the headline “Board agrees to limit executive sessions,” there can be other little victories and rewards. And, the ultimate winners are the voting, tax-paying readers we all serve.