Posted December 17th, 2009 6:03 am

Sheldon Berman, from all accounts, is the sort of leader who should fit in very well in Kentucky. He is also the sort of leader who, along with the Jefferson County Board of Education he works for, should listen to the Courier-Journal’s point. Any governmental agency—ANY—should have as its strong default position a willingness to open up the doors and records to the public it serves. Period, end of story. Any other position is toxic and counter-productive, because even the best designed and carried-out actions are suddenly suspect—otherwise, why would someone insist on hiding the information? There are a few valid exceptions to that position, but those should be exercised only when absolutely necessary, and should be viewed most critically when invoked.

If every public executive operated under the position that every email, every statement, every action was subject to public review, there would be much less likelihood of misconduct. The Courier-Journal has a great editorial reminding why open government is a no-brainer:

The late, great Charlie Rich hit No. 1 in 1973 and took home armloads of awards for a song whose title spoke to the conspiracies of the Nixon era as they were unfolding. Though “Behind Closed Doors” was a tune about love and lust, it was ubiquitous and it provided aural irony to the government doors being pried open on a daily basis by news reporters who cracked the Watergate scandal.
This old song came back in mind in light of this week’s firm judicial smack against the Jefferson County School Board’s closed meeting to consider Superintendent Sheldon Berman’s job evaluation.
Circuit Judge Irv Maze found the board’s action to be a “willful” violation of the state’s open meetings law. He said the board ignored previous rulings, including a recent finding by the state attorney general that such evaluations must be in the sunshine, except when they might lead to discipline or dismissal.
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It is a case about doing the people’s business, with the people’s money, within eyeshot and earshot of the public.
If the newspaper was acting as an agent of the people in its pursuit of openness, the board went against its charge as representatives of the people when they took this business behind closed doors.
Closed doors suggest there is something to hide.
Closed doors are antithetical to democracy.
There should be no move by the legislature to try to close these doors even a little, or to add limiting asterisks to the law, no matter how “convenient,” in the word of Judge Maze, that might seem to be to government officials.
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As another song went, just a few years before Charlie Rich’s hit:
Let the sun shine, let the sun shine, the sun shine in ….

While the changes of open records and open meetings first were adopted, it was revolutionary. Now, it has rightfully become the expectation, and duty owed, by all governmental agencies to the citizens they serve. Let the sun shine in.

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