Not everyone agrees
Sunshine has been a big topic this week. Chattanoogans want it instead of the recent gloomy weather, several Hamilton County commissioners don’t want it in their deliberations and two state legislators want more of it when it comes to the meetings of public hospital officials.
Fortunately, if briefly, the weather has cooperated. But Hamilton County commissioners will have to live with — or violate in private — the state’s Open Meetings Act that keeps their discussions in front of the public. They will, that is, unless they ask state legislators to change the law. But given the fact that state Sen. Todd Gardenhire and state Rep. Mike Carter have filed a bill asking the General Assembly to close a loophole that allows public hospitals to meet in private when they discuss “marketing strategies” and “strategic plans,” that might be a no-go.
It’s understandable when County Commissioner Greg Beck says “the Sunshine Law stinks” because commissioners can’t have a private discussion about what many would say are matters of little consequence in the whole scope of county government, but the tiniest crack in that law opens the door for even more of the backroom deals that some say are a matter of routine. Better to keep things as they are, Commissioner, whether it stinks or not.
And, while the loophole for public hospitals also makes sense for some reasons, Gardenhire and Carter might get traction with their bill because the discussion of “strategic plans” can cover a lot of area when it comes to hospital policy. Believing they were burned on what they think was Erlanger hospital’s recent private discussion of $1.7 million in bonuses, they see the cure as a little more sunshine.