Open Meetings Act lawsuit is spreading lies

Several cities have filed a lawsuit to weaken the Texas Open Meetings Act. The Texas Municipal League has been drumming up support for this cause and has announced it will ask the Texas Legislature to replace “the criminal enforcement provisions with less restrictive penalties.”

To sell the idea that the law is too strict, some public officials and their lobbyists are telling people the act prevents them from speaking about public business.

That is a lie.

People who know and love open government laws want to hear more from their elected officials — not less. They want to know how their representatives intend to vote. There is absolutely nothing in the law that prohibits public officials from discussing their views with their constituents — including those who work for newspapers. Many of us call public officials more or less daily, trying to get their views.

The law does not prohibit any of that, and those who are saying it does are spreading misinformation. Sadly and shamefully, they know better.

What the law prohibits is for a quorum — a binding majority of governmental body — from meeting secretly to conduct business out of the public’s view.

Some of us who have been working for newspapers in Texas for decades remember the days when reporters sometimes didn’t go to public meetings. Instead, they would sneak into cafes where, say, the county commissioners or the school board would meet before the “official” meeting. The commissioners would get together and talk about which family had been “voting right” and should be rewarded with a county contract. The commissioners would discuss how some campaign donor’s nephew had gotten drunk and been jailed, which had cost him his good-paying job. Did anyone have a job on one of the county road crews?

And that’s how business was done.

The law was enacted not to keep public officials from expressing opinions — but to force them to meet in public and to make decisions where taxpayers could see how their business was being conducted and how their money was being spent.

The public officials who are trying to pull the teeth out of the Texas Open Meetings Act claim that it is so strict it infringes on their free speech.

Do you believe that?

If you’re dubious, here’s a test.

If the public officials who represent you really are worried the law might keep them from being open with you and other voters, attend a few meetings and see how open they are. Do they debate issues publicly and frankly? Do they give reasons for their votes? Or are these folks who are so worried about free speech in a rush to adjourn behind closed doors in endless executive sessions?

This law does not infringe on anyone’s right to free speech. It was designed to protect your rights. Beware of those who want to weaken it.