Sunshine in Missouri

Is there light at the end of this guy's tunnel vision?

A reporter calls today to tell me a local county commissioner is upset about a photo that appeared in the paper recently.  It was taken in the county commission meeting.  So, the commissioner  gets this brilliant idea! (Can you see the light bulb over his head?  No, it's not the light coming from the sunshine law!) He proposes the commission ban all photographs from the commission chambers.

Must be he read right over the provision that sas "A public body shall allow for the recording by audiotape, videotape or other electronic means of any open meeting."  Shall, legally, means MUST.  Somebody check this guy's copy of the book...I bet the cover's not even been cracked....

If members of a public body would just READ the law once in a while, motions like this wouldn't be made and the body could spend its time deliberating matters that are of real concern to the constituents. 

Sunshine shinin' on Me...

The St. Louis Post Dispatch blog, "STLtoday.com", haa a great discussion today about the board of aldermen there.  Board members are debating hiring a new clerk.  But there is a fight over whom to hire.  One alderman, bless him, has suggested that the fight has gotten so "intense" that the discussion needs to be moved from closed session to open session.  According to the PD, the alderman making this suggestion said the issue had been "festering" and was "incredibly detrimental" to the board's operation.

What exactly does that mean?  Well, one can only guess that it means that things are being said in private that would never have been said in public and that one alderman is ready for the others to step up to the plate and take public responsibility for their positions on a candidate.

Isn't that a breath of fresh air?  That someone would want to owe up to their beliefs?  That someone would want to be honest and open to the public about their position on an issue?  That  someone would believe that the public has a right to know where aldermen stand on a decision?

Will it happen?  Will the St. Louis Board of Aldermen face the music and operate in the sunshine?  What a wonderful example they would be in this state.