I’m all right through the day, but the day fades away, And the long lonely night takes its place.

   It’s been a long dry spell, but, frankly, public governmental bodies don’t be as active in the summer doldrums as they are the rest of the year and I haven’t had as many complaints as usual dealing with the antics of public officials flaunting the law.  But I knew it wouldn’t last.  Just like the funds flowing into the campaigns since the limits were lifted, I knew that as fall arrived, the calls would start again…

    And yesterday, I got a good one.  A public body holds a meeting and announced a closed meeting under two of the exceptions in Section 610.021 — under exception 1, for legal matters and potential litigation; and under exception 3, for hiring, firing, disciplining and promoting of employees.

    And it becomes obvious, as further details drift out about this meeting, that the discussion was about actions taken by certain of the aldermen themselves and the fact that others on the board are unhappy with those gentlemen and what they might have done.

    Was that “potential litigation?”  No, says a highly-ranked city officials.  There’s no one threatening litigation against the city over these actions.

    So that means the closed meeting was under the “employee” exception, I guess.  Since when is an elected alderman an “employee” of the city?  An elected official is not eligible to be “hired” and “fired” like any regular city employee.  This is simply so basic that it is inconceivable that any member of a public governmental body, let alone the city’s attorney who apparently set in on this illegally closed meeting, could confuse this issue.

    I started this blog more than two years ago to document the sheer volume of mistakes made by public bodies who violate the law.  Some who oppose penalties say the law is confusing and hard to understand.  But it’s situations like this that are make it clear that the law is not really confusing; it’s just that those who swear to uphold the law would rather not include this law as one they are obligated to follow in conducting the public’s business. 

    The sunshine isn’t just getting shorter as the days get shorter.  It continues to diminish in public bodies all over the state and our elected officials simply don’t seem to care.