[Timely repost] Tony Doris and the file "You Can't Make This Stuff Up"

Unbelievable! On the heels of Lake Worth City Attorney Glen Torcivia's presentation on the Sunshine Law and the Open Records statutes is this story from Tony Doris at the West Palm Beat. Is it any wonder the public is so confused? Technically, what our good neighbors in West Palm Beach did was outside the scope of the Sunshine Law; they had a meeting and there was no vote and there was no discussion of agenda items, either present or future. But. . .

With so much public confusion about the Sunshine Law it's not in the public interest to parse the Sunshine Law into technicalities. A good rule to follow is this: if you're not sure if a meeting should be noticed, open to the public, and minutes taken then notice the meeting, invite the public and have minutes taken. That way you avoid getting lit up by Tony Doris. Here are two excerpts:

     Florida is famous for its sunshine.
     But in West Palm Beach, when it came to training city officials in the state’s Government-in-the-Sunshine law on April 24, the session took place out of the sunshine.
     The city staff, including Deputy Administrator Dorritt Miller, at least three members of the city attorney’s office, the finance director and ethics officer, conducted a three-hour, closed-door training session for Mayor Jeri Muoio and the city’s five commissioners on the third floor of the library next to City Hall, without notice to the public.

[and. . .]

     Commissioner Shanon Materio, however, said the meeting should have been open.
     “I don’t understand why it couldn’t have been in the sunshine,” she said. “Why not?”
     Asked if the public might benefit, city spokesman [Elliot] Cohen agreed. “The topic itself is probably a good primer for the public,” he said. “But when it comes to asking questions, sometimes if you’re an elected official …”
     “What’s the harm?” [Barbara] Petersen said. “They should be open even if the law doesn’t require that they be open.”