T&G: "Sunshine Week spotlights public access, involvement"

Don't miss the public forum about openness in government and your right to know, March 15 at 2pm at WCCA, 415 Main St. You can submit questions for the panel.

Telegram & Gazette:

Whether people participate in shaping policy or simply observe the process, everyone benefits from seeing how, and why, decisions are made.

However, the impulse to conduct the public’s business out of public view is strong. Lately, improper meetings of officials in the local coffee shop or pub to evade public scrutiny have given way to exchanges of e-mail. Officials in Barre, Holden and Lunenburg have been sparked criticism for conducting business via the Internet, and e-mail deliberations in Northbridge last fall brought an unequivocal rebuke. The Worcester district attorney’s office notified the town that while use of e-mail for routine scheduling matters is permissible, the “voluminous e-mails” among board members discussing public business were illegal.