Falcon School District 49 has agreed to release audio tapes of two February 2009 meetings held in executive session. The district agreed to release the tapes rather than appear in court today to explain to a judge why it had refused to follow Colorado laws that forbid governmental secrecy in all but the most limited of circumstances.

The court date was set because the Gazette filed suit May 14 after the district had refused to release the tapes. Both meetings, we argued, were illegally convened, and once under way, dealt with topics that are not permitted to be handled outside of public view.

During the weekend, the district tried its last gambit, posting written transcripts of the two executive sessions on its own website, in hopes we would drop our lawsuit. We said thanks, but no. These were our terms:

1. Make the tapes available for listening
2. Pay the Gazette’s legal fees, about $8,500
3. Commit, in writing, to three things:

• To provide sufficient advance notice of executive sessions, with much greater specificity about the topic, as required by Colorado law
• Provide any district employee with advance written notice if their job is to be the subject of any upcoming executive session
• Cease discussing budgetary matters in executive session

The district agreed to the terms on Monday.

The transcripts make plain that the Board of Education waded deep into discussions about general budget matters — important stuff that the law demands be kept in public view.

Over on the forums about D-49, some folks are making much ado about a few unguarded comments made by board members, revealed in cold black-and-white in the transcripts. This, too, is a good reason to keep such discussion reserved for a public setting — you’re less likely to say something that diverts attention from the real business at hand.

Do we plan to publish the transcripts, or even listen to the tapes? Probably not, but I’ll leave it to our education team to determine if there’s news in the documents. If there is, you’ll read it on gazette.com or in the printed Gazette.

The whole point behind our effort wasn’t necessarily to publish any of the information discussed in the executive session. We sued because there was principle at stake — the principle that our public institutions must be accountable to the public.

And I’ll say it again: There can be no accountability without transparency.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.