Well, I don’t know and I don’t care, go away an’ leave me alone…
No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I’ve been indepositions related to sunshine law litigation. One of the mostincredible moments of the whole process — a party in the room makesthe comment that he’s learned more about the sunshine law from watchingfour hours of depositions than he’s learned in all the sunshine lawseminars he’s attended. What does that tell you about the quality (andquantity) of sunshine law training among public governmental bodymembers in the state? And why should public body members wait UNTILTHEY ARE SUED to learn about the law? A sorry state of affairs,indeed….
Meanwhile, twice this week there hae been calls regarding a matter that is so basic but which public governmental bodies cannot seem to understand. A reporter called questioning whether notice needed to be given by their local city council when it held a “work session.” Somehow, some public bodies seem to think that only “meetings” require public notice. But they don’t bother to read the definition of “meeting,” which clearly is any –ANY– meeting of members of a public governmetal body at which public business is DISCUSSED. Aren’t they discussing public business at the work session? Then notice is required. ‘That’s pretty basic, isn’t it? What is it about the definition of “meeting” that these bodies don’t understand? There are only two kinds of meetings in the world, folks, there’s OPEN meetings and there’s CLOSED meetings. I don’t care what you call your meeting, it’s one or the other. There’s nothing else out there.
How can public officials be so callous that they don’t take seriously their obligation, once elected, to learn to do the job they have sworn to do to the best of their ability? One can laugh about these folks “working without tools,” but there is a serious need for some hard core sunshine law training for elected officials. It’s clear that some of these folks just don’t care, and just won’t care until they are forced to do what they should be doing on their own — learning the laws that apply to the task they are undertaking.
Would it make any difference if their oath of office included a phrase about following the sunshine law? Would it cause them to take this any more seriously? Can you name any other law that applies to public officials that is so routinely ignored?