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Saturday, January 20, 2007
Ind. Gov't. - "Bill to ban serial meetings passes House committee"
From an Evansville Courier & Press editorial yesterday:
The push to make it illegal for government boards to hold secret "serial" meetings received a significant boost this week with the endorsement of an Indiana House committee.The editorial unfortunately does not give the bill number. It is HB 1129.The bill sponsored by state Rep. Russ Stilwell, D-Boonville, was passed out of the House Government Regulatory Reform Committee on an 8-1 vote.
It was just a year ago that a similar measure could not even get a hearing in the House. That bill, sponsored by state Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield, passed the Senate 48-2, but could garner no support in the House.
That was baffling, because it raised the question, why would any conscientious lawmaker support a loophole to the Open Meetings Law that permitted government boards to meet in secret in small groups? While the meetings may not have violated the letter of the law, they clearly violated the spirit of the law, which is intended to ensure Hoosiers access to the proceedings of their government.
Yet with serial meetings, boards can conduct public business in private and then take action in public meetings, without allowing the public to be privy to their deliberations. That could change soon, given the momentum of Stilwell's bill.
Also significant is that House Speaker Pat Bauer and Majority Caucus Chairman Dale Grubb have signed on as co-sponsors of Stilwell's bill. * * *
According to Courier & Press staff writer Bryan Corbin, opposition to the measure is coming from the Association of Indiana Counties, the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns, and the Indiana School Boards Association, each of which represents groups of local government officials.
Corbin wrote that Frank Bush of the school board group told lawmakers that the serial-meeting ban would have several unintended consequences. For example, he said, could a school board president meet with and provide orientation to a newly elected board member?
It just doesn't balance that Indiana should allow government boards the out of meeting legally in secret just to guard against situations such as that described by Bush. The target here is stealth government, not the orientation of new officials.
Stilwell's bill has on its side the principle that Indiana government should be fully open and accessible to all Hoosiers. That trumps all other concerns in the consideration of this legislation.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 20, 2007 10:32 AM
Posted to Indiana Government