THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 10, 1994 TAG: 9407070252
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 58 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: Ron Speer
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
``Democracy,'' said Robert Maynard Hutchins 40 years ago, ``is the only form of government that is founded on the dignity of man, not the dignity of some men, of rich men, of educated men or white men, but of all men.''
``Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible,'' Reinhold Neibuhr said 50 years ago, ``but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.''
Nearly 100 years earlier, Theodore Parker said that democracy ``is a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people.''
I think they all would applaud the General Assembly's recent approval of an open meetings bill designed to shed more light on actions by government bodies and agencies.
The House and Senate cut from 20 to 7 the legal reasons government bodies can go behind closed doors to do public business.
And right up front, the bill that became law June 23 pulled no punches.
That worn-out euphemism, ``executive session,'' has been replaced by ``closed session,'' which Sen. Ray Cooper of Rocky Mount says ``legally calls them what they are.''
Cooper, credited with shepherding the bill through the assembly, said ``this open meetings bill is a major step toward more open and responsible government. Open government is at the very core of democratic principles and the foundation of freedom.''
The law now says closed sessions can be called only to: Discuss the hiring/firing or performance of employees; Instruct staff on negotiations for buying land or other property; Allow its attorney to give legal advice on lawsuits and contracts; Discuss a new or expanding industry; Hear reports on criminal investigations; Prevent disclosure of information made confidential by state or federal law; Prevent disclosure of awards.
That's it. Plain and simple. No reason any member of a public body - or the taxpayers who want to know how their money is being spent - should be confused.
The new law also spells out that the University of North Carolina is a public body, and so are appointed groups. Minutes are required in closed sessions. Public bodies must cite the specific authority when calling a closed session. Lawsuits filed to enforce the open meeting law will be given priority. And members of public bodies may be assessed attorney fees personally for knowingly violating the law.
I wish the bill had copied a provision in the Virginia sunshine law that says that any time three members of a public body meet it's an official session. There's a perception that an awful lot of government business around here still seems to be done during coffee breaks and at lunch.
But this law is another step toward keeping the good ol' boy system from closing doors for convenience or shame or worse, and enabling the people who pay the taxes to see who's doing what to whom.
Times they are a-changin' here as they are in other developing areas, and newcomers will demand more and more of a say in how their money is spent.
Manteo's Marc Basnight, president pro tem of the Senate, is aware of the changes.
``The campaign finance reform bills that we passed last week were a big step forward,'' he says. ``This open meetings law will bring us even closer to our goals.''
Democracy works only when people know what's going on. Closed meetings and deals done before and after public sessions discourage people from getting involved.
My own stand on open meetings can be summed up by something I wrote years ago:
Good deeds are rarely done in the dark. by CNB