Open Government & Closed Meetings

Boy, don’t I know about that! On Wednesday, October 03, 2007, Joe Tyrell of the Star-Ledger wrote about John Paff, a Franklin Township citizen who is concerned about how the Somerset County Park Commission is fudging its closed sessions.

Good for him. I firmly believe that many if not most elected and appointed deliberative public entities abuse the privilege extended to them under New Jersey’s Sunshine Law.

That statute explicitly states that an agenda has to be published with a 48-hour public notice, and that the subject of the closed session must be clearly stated. It also requires that complete minutes be kept and published. But public bodies get around this all the time, because the statute is not monitored and rarely enforced, giving the implied assumption that elected officials meeting in such a manner will be honest. Whew! What an assumption.

For example, if a public body goes behind closed doors to enter into labor contract negotiations, it might simply label the topic as “Negotiations” on its agenda. You won’t necessarily know with whom the negotiations are taking place, let alone the even more important aspects of the proposed deal, such as the initial offer being put on the table by the bargaining unit, or the counteroffer being offered by the public entity.

This is all under the guise that to progressively disclose such information would jeopardize the negotiations themselves and, therefore, an outcome favorable to the public. Of course, the outcome of such secret deliberations is almost always injurious to the public interest.

Since you don’t have the facts, you cannot, as an informed citizen, voice your opinion in public to the elected body. That would make it too uncomfortable for politicians who don’t want citizens running pass interference.

Another example occurs when a public body goes behind closed doors with its attorney: It may simple label the subject of the meeting as, “Attorney-Client Privilege.” Some privilege!

I don’t think that’s what the legislators had in mind when they enacted the Sunshine Law. Or was it?