Let the sun shine

You can say what you want about the questionable ethics practices of certain members of the Wisconsin State Supreme Court, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. In this instance, justices made the right call in helping draw the line over private groups who do the public’s business.
The court last week ruled that the Beaver Dam Area Development Corporation is a quasi-governmental corporation because the group’s sole function is to provide economic development services to the City of Beaver Dam and it is funded solely by that community’s room tax fund.
While there are parallels between the Beaver Dam Development Corporation and local development foundations such as the ones that exist in Medford and Rib Lake, the important distinction is where the money comes from. In the Beaver Dam case, the court used the “If it looks like a duck and acts like a duck” style of reasoning and ruled that since the city provided space, office supplies and equipment, and treated the ostensibly independent organization as a branch of the city government it should fall under the realm of the quasi-governmental rules.
Quasi-governmental entities are by law required to abide by the open meetings and open records laws. While the law allows a great deal of leeway to close meetings to the public for specific development purposes, the very fact of letting the public know that a meeting is being held for a deal potentially impacting the future of the community is an important safeguard in the citizen’s right to know. Deals between governments and private developers that spring forth in whole cloth to be rubber stamped by elected officials should always be questioned.
In the Beaver Dam case, the sham development organization was established as a front in order to allow that city to conduct secret negotiations with a prospective developer. While conducting negotiations over development deals is something every municipality should be doing, setting up a smokescreen to hide the facts from the public is just plain wrong.
The public is never served when the people’s business is conducted behind closed doors and out of sight of citizens.
The court decision takes a large step in defining the nebulous concept of a quasi-governmental organization and setting the criteria for what separates private development groups from those acting as government agents.
There are times when the doors must be closed on development dealings where sensitive business information is discussed. While the shadows are needed at times, the full light of day needs to shine on the actions of governments so that officials may be held accountable for their actions.

Members of The Star News editorial board include Publisher Carol O’Leary, General Manager Kris O’Leary, News Editor Brian Wilson, and Reporters Donald Watson, Luke Klink, and Mark Berglund.