Our View: Don't close state meetings

Promises of the new Montana Legislature that there will be openness and cooperation in the upcoming session got off to a rocky start Thursday night.

Members of the House Republican caucus met secretly in the basement of a Helena hotel to talk about priorities for the upcoming session.

It seems to us that Montana law is crystal clear. In the state constitution and in subsequent Montana court rulings, it is obvious that all meetings of party caucuses are to be open to the public, no exceptions.

Republicans came up with all kinds of reasons why the law should not apply in this case, all of them weak.

The lamest came from State Senate President Jeff Essman, who will be a member of the House in January,

He said the law didn't count because the meeting wasn't on pubic property. Nothing in the constitution excludes meetings held in hotel basements.

Helena attorney Mike Meloy, the state's premiere expert on pubic access, didn't agree with Essman at all.

"It doesn't make any difference where a public entity holds a meeting," Meloy told The Associated Press. "The problem of this meeting is they didn't notify anyone, so without that it's just as effectively closed as if the doors were locked."

In full disclosure, Meloy has represented the Havre Daily News in right-to-know cases, so we trust his views on such issues a great deal.

Essman also questioned whether democracy is advanced when political leaders cannot speak frankly.

Apparently, he feels that legislators can't speak frankly when those pesky members of the public are around.

Again, Meloy disagreed.

"In Montana, the rule is you have to speak frankly in front of the public," Meloy said, "and if you want to be a public official in Montana, you just have to accept that legal proposition."

So this gave Democrats an opportunity to pounce.

"It's no surprise Republican leaders are hiding in smoke-filled back rooms to keep their out-of-touch reckless agenda from the people of Montana," Democratic spokesman Bryan Watt said.

First, while we believe House Republicans violated right-to-know laws, there's no hint they violated Montana's clear air laws. The room was not smoke filled.

Second, oops, not so fast Mr. Watt.

House Minority Leader Chuck Hunter admitted that sometimes, maybe kinda, Democrats meet in closed sessions to discuss strategy.

But all the legal niceties and politics aside, holding secret meetings to discuss public matters is terrible public policy.

Policies that will affect the public and be paid for by the public ought to be debated in public.

The policies ought to be debated in front of members of the public, be they lobbyists, reporters, people affected by the decisions or any common ordinary Joe who wants to see what his government is up to.

We hope the blow-up over the closed meeting is a lesson to all concerned.

The public's business should be conducted in pubic. No exceptions.

That's what the framers of the Montana Constitution believed in. We hope Helena politicians will be converted to that principle.