As my colleagues blogged earlier, the first in-person meeting of the new ethics watchdog, the Joint Commission On Public Ethics, was not exactly a shining example of open government.

So leave it up to Mike Gormley of the Associated Press to literally stand up for open government.

Toward the end of the JCOPE agenda, Board Chairwoman Janet DiFiore asked for a motion to go into closed-door executive session. Gormley stood up from his seat in the audience and asked her to explain why.

It’s a fair request, considering that the law does require boards to explain why they’re meeting in private. Granted, JCOPE doesn’t have to comply with that law, but DiFiore told the public that she is trying to follow the “spirit” of the law.

“We are following the spirit of the Open Meetings Law,” she said. “It’s my determination that there are matters that need to be discussed in an executive and closed session.”

The decision to go into executive session was nearly unanimous. The only board member to oppose it was Ravi Batra, Senate Minority Leader John Sampson’s controversial pick to sit on the board (Batra, in his introductory statement, announced he was donating a $1,000 check to a local anti-hunger charity).

DiFiore defended the decision to go into executive session, saying that some matters need to be discussed privately.

“There are some matters that require confidentiality and I think as we go we’ll decide what those matters are,” she said.

The commission stayed ni executive session for nearly 2 hours.

Share|