Editorial -- Rapid City Journal

South Dakota, the closed-records state, is now working on becoming the closed-meetings state.
In Pierre yesterday, the state Senate's local government committee sent a bill to the full Senate that would allow elected officials from one public board to attend the meeting of another government entity, without giving the public notice beforehand.
The state's open meetings law requires that state and local boards, commissions and other agencies must give public notice 24 hours before holding a meeting. But SB199, if passed, would approve a big loophole to that law by stating that the "guest" entity does not have to adhere to the open meetings requirement.
Specifically, the public meeting law would be amended to say:
"It does not constitute an official meeting if members of a political subdivision of this state are attending a meeting of the state or one of its political subdivisions, a board, a commission, an association, an agency, or any other public entity for which public notice is provided pursuant to 1-25-1.1 for the purpose of providing information or observing, and the notice requirements in 1-25-1.1 do not apply."
SB199 stems from a Grant County open meetings violation in which a township board met with the Grant County Commission without posting an agenda prior to that meeting.
The township was reprimanded for that violation, but SB199 would make it legal for some elected officials to keep at least some of their dealings with other elected bodies unknown to their constituents until after the fact.
As we see it, the change would permit two school boards to meet to discuss anything from consolidation plans to sharing classes or sports programs without giving the people of at least one of those school districts notice of the meeting.
It means two city councils or two county commissions could discuss anything from purchases to tax policy without informing at least some of the taxpayers they represent.
This bill puts the convenience of governing boards above the interests of citizens who want to participate in government. The group of lawmakers that introduced this bill includes Rapid City legislators Dennis Schmidt, Mark Kirkeby and Jeff Haverly. We think it could have unintended consequences and we hope the full Senate recognizes it as the flawed legislation that it is.