Open up those meetings, boys and girls

May 11th, 2009 at 03:43pm Linda Grist Cunningham

Here’s why I am ticked off — and why you should be, too. Remember the MetroCentre, that time-sucking, controversy-creating civic center downtown? The one that needs a taxpayer revenue stream? The one that now has a newly created ad-hoc committee reviewing its finances?

That one. Well, the city’s official position is “all discussions by the ad hoc committee are behind closed doors.” Why? Well, for starters, because they want to. That’s the real reason. They want to. They do not want you or the media there.

They can cite a court case to allow them to close the meetings, though by no means is that court case definitive. So, by gosh and by golly, they can, so they will.

Your elected public officials have no intention of walking their talk. They tell you (and us here in the News Tower) they believe in transparency. That they want open, public government. That no good comes of doing the public’s business in secret.

Then they go about creating public-private partnerships that allow them to circumvent Illinois’ Open Public Meetings Act. They create ad hoc committees, again to circumvent the OPMA. They cite lawyerly reasons why they can jolly well lock out the great unwashed, unelected and just plain un-powerful.

Not one of them does anything to open the doors. The OPMA states clearly that meetings are presumed open. The law says they “may” be closed for a handful of reasons. No where does the OPMA say they MUST be closed. So every governmental and quasi-governmental meeting in the region could be open.

But, these guys work hard, very hard, to close them because they don’t want you and me to know what they are doing. They pass the buck, they beg to be allowed to brainstorm in private so they don’t look stupid (as if….). They say they don’t want to reveal stuff to competitors or mess up a contract.

They want, they say, the freedom to talk among themselves without anyone hearing them.

Rockford’s mayor, Larry Morrissey, touted openness in both his campaigns. If he’s for open public meetings, then he ought to tell his legal beagle Patrick Hayes and administration side kick Jim Ryan to get with the program.  I think the mayor wants the meetings closed, too; he’s just letting the front guys do their thing.

I called the mayor’s office and left a heads up that this column and blog post were coming. I figured I owed him at least that. Reporter Jeff Kolkey and Editorial Page Editor Wally Haas also have pieces of this story. Jeff on the news side; Wally on editorial. Senior Editor Chuck Sweeny is likely to weigh in as well.

There are three ways to open the MetroCentre ad hoc committee meetings. The mayor can do so. As of this writing, he’s choosing not to. The city council can introduce and pass a resolution to open them up. So far, the alderman are running for cover. Heaven forbid that they stand up for open government.And, third, I can take them to court. Perhaps they will decide that spending tax dollars on a court case would be silly. Just open the meetings, boys and girls. Save everyone a lot of hassle.

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