Openness should be supreme when it comes to meetings and records of public bodies.
We see and hear of boards, councils, other public bodies that either ignore or attempt to skirt the Open Meetings and Records Act.
Non-profits are subject to the law when they receive any kind of public funding.
It’s frustrating to see. It happens because either the organization or public body is not as knowledgeable as it should be about the Open Meeting and Open Records Act, or it just isn’t interested enough to abide by it.
On a recent Lincoln County Commissioners’ agenda there was an item that read, “Discussion and possible action to approve Certification and Confidential Settlement Distribution Statement for Janssen Opioid Settlement.”
Commissioners voted to approve that item.
County Clerk Alicia Wagnon explained in the meeting that the county’s portion was more than $36,000 although the resolution wouldn’t be ready to adopt until the commissioners’ next meeting.
When we spoke with Lincoln County District 3 Commissioner Lee Doolen, who is chairman of the commission, he informed it was the lawyers who insisted on the confidentiality.
But he also noted he couldn’t really understand that because one could look on Google and find out all about it.
This week during the commissioners’ meeting, they agreed to participate in several other settlements and will wait to find out what the county’s portion is in those.
We encourage commissioners to insist these are open and transparent to the public.
House Bill 1378, by State Rep. Tom Gann, if passed into law, aims to prohibit non-disclosure agreements for all public bodies.
About the only time that public bodies should be able to not disclose details of agreements is when they are trying to lure a business or industry to their community or to the state.
That would be understandable and once the entity decided to locate in a town, city, county or state the details could then be provided.
We’ve spoken with a couple of area legislators, State Rep. Kevin Wallace of Wellston and State Rep. Dell Kerbs, Shawnee, and they are both in agreement this is the only time public bodies should be able to withhold information from the citizenry.
We heard an educator one time make a comment that caught our attention. He said he couldn’t believe how many either break the law or try to skirt around it with their agendas.
Recently, State Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced that his office had cleared a sizable backlog of open records requests dating back to years before he took office.
“I believe strongly in openness and transparency in government, and I will continue to aggressively enforce the Open Records and Open Meetings Acts across state government,” said Drummond.”
“A transparent government begets a better government, as it exposes bad actors while attracting public officials who act with honesty and integrity,” he added.
We emphatically agree with that statement and hope he holds all public bodies to that standard.