A closed door is not transparent

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December 12, 2009

Guest column

By Steve Harrison The McAlester News-Capital Sat Dec 12, 2009, 04:34 PM CST

Transparency in government. It’s a popular phrase these days. Perhaps it resonates even stronger in McAlester, given our recent past city government that was anything but. You’d have a hard time finding any local politician including, I suspect, any of our current councilmen who wouldn’t swear fealty to the concept. That’s why the council’s recent decision to ignore Oklahoma’s Open Meeting Act was so disappointing.

I am referring to the executive session held by the council behind closed doors on December 1 (“City council votes to furlough employees” — McAlester News-Capital, Dec. 2, 2009). The session was held in order to privately discuss and decide upon various cost-cutting measures to shore up the city’s budget. Although the Notice of Meeting did not specify what topics would be covered in the secret session (a violation of the Act), this newspaper did some digging and informed the public the day before (“Council to decide on furloughs for city workers” — Nov. 30, 2009).

Upon returning to open session, the mayor made a series of five motions that were quickly seconded and passed without discussion — thus confirming what went on behind closed doors. Officially, the city invoked an exception to the Open Meeting Act that allows (but does not require) the convening of an executive session to discuss “negotiations concerning employees and representatives of employee groups.” This exception exists so that governing bodies can privately discuss matters related to collective bargaining. Cities would be disadvantaged if their strategy sessions on union negotiations were required to be conducted in public. Therefore, in this limited case, the potential harm to the public (through more costly collective bargaining agreements) outweighs the general premise that “the process of decision making as well as the end results must be conducted in full view of the governed.” (Oklahoma Association of Municipal Attorneys v. Derryberry, Okla., 577 P. 2d 1310, 1313-14 (1978))

Joey Senat, an associate professor of journalism at Oklahoma State University and a former president of Freedom of Information Oklahoma, states that our city council failed “when they hid from the public their nearly two-hour discussion of how to address the city’s budget problems.” Mr. Senat, an expert on open government, has posted his findings and opinions on this matter for those who wish to know more at foioklahoma.blogspot.com. He concludes by noting “No exemption exists to allow public bodies to discuss budget issues in secret. Other exemptions cannot be used as a subterfuge to conduct such discussions behind closed doors.”

Trust in government has been and continues to be a huge issue in McAlester. Misdeeds by past councils color the public’s perception of today’s council, like it or not. Surely the council can see that attempting to justify this executive session as somehow being within the letter of the law is counterproductive to changing that public perception for the better. Even if a nuanced legal argument could be concocted, in my opinion there is not a shadow of a doubt that it violated the spirit of the law.

My hope is that in the future the council will look for reasons to hold discussions “in full view of the governed” rather than looking for reasons to hide them. Perhaps then we can start to believe in transparency in government.

Steve Harrison is a McAlester resident and served as McAlester’s interim treasurer.

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