Access to government

Whenever government hides, the people who pay taxes and elect public officials are shortchanged. That's why most states, including Missouri and Illinois, have laws that require government meetings and records to be available to the public.

In the past week, several representatives of local government have, on purpose or inadvertently, closed the door on access to meetings and records. As a result, serious deliberations that have been surrounded by rumors and innuendo have become bogged down in even more rumors and innuendo. That shouldn't happen.

Beleaguered Cairo, Ill., is having widely publicized problems that appear to be the result of personality conflicts. It is no secret that the town's mayor and some of its council members don't see eye to eye. To explain this situation fully and accurately, the Southeast Missourian has requested several pieces of information. Officials who can provide this information have balked. In doing so, they are shutting the public out of government.

Not a popularity contest

One Cairo official frankly concedes that he won't cooperate with the newspaper's requests because he doesn't like the attitude of the reporter who made the request. Access to government isn't a popularity contest. It's the law.

In Oran, Mo., a sizable group of business owners were concerned enough about the new police chief's strict enforcement of the law -- a puzzling situation if ever there was one -- to ask for a meeting with the city council. At the meeting, the business owners asked the council to close the meeting to the public -- not the 28 business owners or city clerk, just a few interested residents and a Southeast Missourian reporter. So a "secret" discussion was held.

There are several problems with closing that meeting.

First, it violated the Missouri open meetings and open records law -- the so-called Sunshine Law. Meetings may be closed to discuss personnel only when the city council is considering the hiring or firing of a city employee. The business owners were there to complain about the police chief. They may have even demanded that he be fired. But until the council begins to deliberate whether it wants to fire the chief and takes a vote on that issue, it can't legally close its public meeting, according to the Sunshine Law.

Public should see, hear

Second, attendance at the closed meeting was high -- 28 businesses plus council members and a city clerk. Who in Oran by now hasn't heard some version of what went on in that meeting -- a version colored by personalities and prejudices? The Sunshine Law's fundamental precept is that the public should see and hear for itself what goes on in a public meeting and draw its own conclusions.

Finally, there are plenty of unanswered questions regarding the handling of a situation in Chaffee, Mo., that has resulted in charges against the city's former court clerk. After missing money was returned, the Scott County prosecuting attorney issued a written statement saying the investigation had ended. Subsequently, charges were filed -- based on a Missouri State Highway Patrol investigation that apparently continued in spite of the prosecutor's statement. Three Chaffee council members said they were never consulted about the matter. The prosecutor won't talk to the Southeast Missourian's reporter, relying instead on brief written statements that don't address questions that, if answered, would help the public understand what their elected officials are doing and why they are doing it.

Public officials have many responsibilities and are to be commended for accepting them. One of those is keeping the public informed, particularly when unfounded rumors get out of hand. Open meetings and access to public information are essential in this process.