More Govt secrecy and we pay for it!

The really disgusting aspect of this push for greater secrecy is that OUR taxpayer money is funding it. As the Commercial Appeal article below points out, all the groups involved are associations of government officials. They take OUR tax money and pay the dues to these groups which then hire lobbyists to lobby against the interests of taxpayers. It is outrageous. They are basically daring us to stop them.

Report from Commercial Appeal-Rick Locker

The TML, Tennessee School Boards Association, the association of county governments and others have presented wish lists for new exemptions to the meetings and records laws -- including closed school board meetings on job performance of the schools superintendent and other "sensitive issues."

But the study coincides with a time of scandal and other concerns about government across the state, including the federal government's "Tennessee Waltz" corruption investigation. In Memphis, one city councilman is under indictment, as is the former president of MLGW, and the FBI continues its work.

Oped in Daily News Journal

A subcommittee of the state's open meetings panel voted recently to allow members of an elected body to gather and discuss public business in private as long as fewer than a quorum are present.

To me, that's nuts. Why is transparency so threatening to some officials? The public's business should always be handled in the open, the legal exception being to allow elected officials to discuss ongoing lawsuits with attorneys in private.