What’s wrong with secret meetings by government leaders when they negotiate labor contracts? Peter Scheer, a lawyer and journalist who heads the California First Amendment Coalition, writes:

If no one is watching, it’s easy for public officials to give generous pay and benefit increases without having a clue how to pay for them. That’s not so easy to do in a public session, where voters demand to know how much taxes will have to be raised, and how much other expenses cut, in order to make good on the promised increases in compensation. Such resistance is called political accountability, and it obviously depends on public access to the meetings in which elected representatives make their decisions. more

If you don’t know about the California First Amendment Coalition, here’s a link that will tell you more.