Newspaper: Those who violate open-meeting law should pay a price

Elected officials routinely violate the state Sunshine Law because the penalty for breaking the law amounts to a slap on the wrist.

From an editorial in the Reading Eagle:

In fact, the Sunshine Act is intended to assure that elected and appointed officials throughout the commonwealth perform the public's business in full view of anyone who is interested in watching it, and the law is ignored almost as frequently as the 55-mph speed limit on the West Shore Bypass. But the odds of motorists being fined for exceeding the speed limit are infinitely greater than the chances that any elected or appointed public official will be cited for violating the Sunshine Act.

If the law had some real teeth, with hefty fines for violators, those who take an oath of office may actually follow the law and conduct the public's business in the open.

Read the full editorial at the newspaper's Web site:

Those who violate open-meeting law should pay a price (3/14/10)