County council drops ball on letter that is more than a letter

In what may or may not be its first collective letter, the new Jefferson County Council has fired off a request to state Sen. Ryan McKenna asking that he support a Senate bill that would ban red-light cameras in Missouri.

It was signed by all seven councilmen and sent on letterhead from the Jefferson County Council.

The problem was, the matter never was put on a county council agenda, never debated publicly and never voted on.

How many ways does this appear to violate the Missouri Open Meetings and Records Law? Plenty.

For starters, action of the council, as a body, has to be done in open session, unless it is an action excepted by the law, such as litigation, real estate negotiations or a personnel issue.

It was none of those.

For it to be done in an open session, it has to be listed on an agenda.

That wasn't done.

It has to be voted publicly.

That wasn't done.

A darker side of this is that, obviously, there was a decision to send the letter because all of the council members signed it. We can't say for sure that there had to be an illegal, unposted meeting at which this was decided, but there is, at the least, a bad smell on it.

Six of the seven council members are Republicans, elected in contested races by a zealous wave of activists promising smaller and more transparent government. One of them, District 2 Councilwoman Renee Reuter, is an attorney who should have known better.

The gold standard for transparency in this state is complying with the meetings and records law, better known as the Sunshine Law. Spending county money to print and mail this letter to more than 20 legislators on county letterhead was clearly an official action of the county council.

Missouri Press Association attorney Jean Maneke, who helped write the law, said as much in an interview.

How did this happen? One council member said he didn't read what was put in front of him to sign. Another said he thought it was a personal letter from District 3 Councilman Bob Boyer because Boyer asked him to sign it.

Boyer said he considered the communication "just a letter," and not an official council action, even though it was signed by the whole council on council stationery.

It is not for us to say whether Boyer was playing dumb or was, on this one, actually dumb. At the end of the day, it doesn't make a lot of difference. He was wrong, and as one of the loudest critics of government during the campaign, Boyer should be duly embarrassed.

And no, Boyer didn't bother to ask the county counselor whether the action was legal. He just did it.

The county council is new. There's not an experienced politician in the bunch, which presumably was an appealing quality to voters who threw out many contested incumbents in November.

Having said that, it's fair to point out that the council members had two months to prepare to take office, and now have been in office for a month.

The cherry on top is the near universal promise to make the new government a big picture window of transparency -- the Steak 'n Shake of government, where we'll do all our cooking on an open grill, right in front where all the customers can watch.

Being that open means getting religion right away with the Sunshine Law.

With openness such a top priority, there is no excuse for not knowing that law cold on Day One.

Being elected to anything is a heady experience. Being elected as pioneers in the brave new world of a brand spanking new government is even more intoxicating.

All newly elected officials, sooner or later, face The Question. And that question is, do the rules apply to me, or have I convinced myself that my supreme popularity and mandate from the people allow me to think some of those rules don't apply to me?

Or, as Jake and Elwood Blues said in "The Blues Brothers" movie to explain their law-breaking behavior, "We're on a mission from God."

The county council is also on a mission, a worthy mission to reshape county government, but it's going to be harder to accomplish if the council continues to muff easy chances such as this. Council members have to learn the rules.

They are representing Jefferson County government when they sign a document such as this letter.

It would be nice if they did it legally -- and openly.

Pat Martin is the publisher of the Jefferson County Leader in Festus, Mo. This editorial originally appeared in the Jefferson County Leader on Feb. 3.