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Monday, March 05, 2007
Ind. Gov't. - "Open Government: Measures to ban serial meetings pass both houses"
The Evansville Courier & Press has an editorial today on the proposals to end serial meetings:
The bill to ban government boards from holding stealth serial meetings is one of the most important confronting the Indiana Legislature this session.It may not have the broad public interest of full-day kindergarten or highway funding, but it is essential to honest, transparent government in Indiana at the state and local level. Thats why we have chosen to monitor its progress on this page until the day that it is finally passed.
To that end, the Indiana State Senate and the House have each passed their own versions of serial-meeting bills. We have come far from last year when the bill could not even muster a hearing in the House, although it did pass the Senate.
What this is about is the practice of some government boards to meet in small groups that are less than a quorum, one after another, in order to discuss matters they don't want aired in public.
We dont hear a lot about these meetings and certainly all boards don't do it because they are kept secret. Of course, the most prominent case is the one of the Indiana University Board of Trustees, which met to discuss the firing of then-basketball coach Bob Knight.
Unfortunately, it is not now a violation of the law, although it is clearly a violation of the spirit of the states Open Meetings Law, which is intended to provide Hoosiers open access to their governments proceedings.
It is interesting that opposition to these bills is coming from such groups as the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns, the Indiana Association of Counties and the Indiana School Boards Association. All have testified against the legislation.
Supporting the bill is the Hoosier State Press Association.
Of the two bills that have passed, the House version, sponsored by Rep. Russ Stilwell, D-Boonville, should be the preferred one. It prohibits secret meetings of less than a quorum, but allows for exceptions, such as innocent social gatherings.
According to Courier & Press staff writer Bryan Corbin, the Senate bill does that, but allows for more exceptions.
One of them is extremely bothersome. It would allow boards to hold a series of one-on-one meetings behind closed doors. That would, for all purposes, allow them to continue to circumvent the spirit of the Open Meetings Law, and should be unacceptable to all lawmakers who have the interest of the public at heart.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 5, 2007 08:40 AM
Posted to Indiana Government