Bredesen offers a glimmer of hope
The Tennessee state Legislature's Open Government Subcommittee recommended several changes to Tennessee's sunshine law this week, including a provision which would allow up to three members of County Commission to deliberate in secret. If even two members are allowed to deliberate away from public scrutiny (which the law presently forbids), the effect will be the same as if all members of Commission were allowed to do so. Members A and B could meet in private, then members B and C could meet in private, and so on, until all of them have managed to deliberate an issue outside public view.
If this change to the sunshine law is approved, the Legislature might as well go ahead and just repeal the thing entirely, since it will no longer have any meaning.
This change would permit a level of corruption that would far surpass anything we've seen so far in our local legislative bodies, and that level of corruption is already unacceptably high.
Amid the ongoing effort to eviscerate the sunshine law, Governor Phil Bredesen had this to say:
Gov. Phil Bredesen said Thursday he doesn't want the Legislature to weaken the state's open government laws by allowing local politicians to discuss public business in private.
[...]
"If something outrageous were to happen, I'd certainly work hard to try to overcome it, and that would include the threat of a veto," he said.
I hope he keeps that promise.
UPDATE: Jack Lail and I have been following up on this topic in comments here.