Victory for open government
At the City Council meeting ...
The last council had this habit of meeting in small groups. Two or three members would get together with various department heads and talk about issues. Sounds great, except the council was able to circumvent open meeting laws that way. Those small groups weren't obligated to invite the public, so they didn't. Consequently, a lot of the people's business was discussed in private.
The new council hasn't done that since members were installed in December.
On Tuesday night, several council members - T. Dianne Bellamy-Small, Mayor Yvonne Johnson, Robbie Perkins and Goldie Wells - voted to return to the small group model. Perkins said it was helpful to hear from department heads and receive more detailed information about how the city is being run.
The vote failed. Here are the council members who opposed returning to small groups: Trudy Wade, Mike Barber, Sandra Anderson Groat, Zack Matheny and Mary Rakestraw.
Instead, the board will probably add another briefing session.