Freedom of What Speech?

Yesterday, a reporter told me about a school board who met in closed session. The meeting
included a recently-elected board member who was apparently new to the whole process. After
the meeting, the board member had occasion to talk about the closed meeting events to a reporter
and now is being admonished by the board for leaking closed meeting information.

Nowhere — not one place — in the open meetings law does it provide for any penalty that may be
assessed against a member of a public body for disclosing closed meeting information. This is a
frequent ploy by board members seeking to intimidate other members. And some bodies have
risen to the challenge of creating a penalty where one doesn’t exist to where they are enacting
ordinances in the city making it a criminal offense to disclose such information.

Since when did members of a public body lose their First Amendment rights? Last time I
checked, freedom of speech was still on the books of our United States Constitution.

The Sunshine Law does NOT require meetings be held in closure. It is a privilege but NOT a
requirement. So, to begin with, a body needs to remember that there is NO mandate that matters
be held in closed session. And certainly there is no right to deprive a citizen of their freedom of
speech in an effort to control the political agenda of a public body.

This is clearly a control issue that is out of control.