Government at work, out of sight

Tuesday morning, the Scott County Board held its brief televised weekly meeting, honoring a pair of Eagle Scouts. Then it moved to a small conference room, away from the cameras, for the real action: an edgy discussion about how to tackle the millions in budget cuts it is pondering this fall.

A few hours later, the St. Louis Park City Council met in its regular televised session for precisely 13 minutes and 47 seconds, taking care of a legal formality. Then, with cameras off, it convened a workshop at which it pondered a major civic undertaking: a new community center.

All across the metro, public bodies in recent years have turned their chambers into television studios, granting tens of thousands direct access to civic affairs once witnessed by a relative handful. But much of the substance is shifting to other, quieter settings -- a practice being labeled as backroom governing in some elections this fall.

"There's a real issue here," said Sean Kershaw, executive director of the Citizens League.

"I really don't think there is ill intent when these decision-making bodies do this. Cameras can create a dynamic that isn't healthy. They do need to hash things out. But they don't seem to get it that the public doesn't trust them."

Incumbents point to a number of ways in which they try to keep their "workshops" or "study sessions" transparent. But most agree that it's a legitimate issue.

"I guess the consensus is, we don't need to [broadcast informal workshops] because we're so open in so many ways," said Jeff Jacobs, mayor of St. Louis Park. "I suppose if there were to be some groundswell on this, we could change it. It wouldn't bother me. I don't care."

"Topics that are messy are getting tabled to 'work sessions' that few of us ever see," said Jerry Willenburg, a candidate for mayor in Tuesday's primary election. "The public is feeling like, 'Hey, wait a minute -- when did that decision happen?'"

Some places are much more open than others. Shakopee televises all study sessions. And other communities take other steps, such as posting detailed agendas beforehand, and detailed minutes afterward of what was said and by whom. St. Louis Park posted materials on the community center issue on its website.

But others are vague about what they plan to discuss -- item No. 3 is "other," in Blaine's notice of its workshop last week -- or produce only brief summaries of what was said.

While the meetings by law have to be open to the public, and reporters often attend, boards and councils sometimes meet in smaller conference rooms. The Scott board's conference room doesn't always even have an extra seat, though one can be wheeled in. And when a reporter turned up for the first time, he was asked to announce who he was.

The Dakota County Board televises its regular meetings, but does its real work in committee. The committees meet in spacious rooms with easy public access, but no cameras are present. Doug Riles, challenging incumbent Joe Harris in Tuesday's primary, is making a big point of that.

"I don't know that I disagree with him," Harris said. "Board meetings just finalize all the work done in committee, where the discussions do take place. Committees often meet where the staff is, and unfortunately, those places don't have TV capabilities."

He's not so sure, though, that many citizens -- or cable companies -- are really dying for hours of government minutia. "If it were a burning issue, we would do something about it."

Mayors such as Jacobs and Burnsville's Elizabeth Kautz point out that their sessions are in council chambers, with citizens present -- hardly secretive. But technology is changing old definitions of what's truly transparent.

In Richfield, for example, the city's research shows, two-thirds of all residents have cable -- and 40 percent of them say they watch at least bits of public meetings over the course of a given year.

That's gigantic compared with the smattering who are physically present for most public meetings. And it's a fact that city councils are keenly aware of, given the sharp disagreements they sometimes have, over whether to allow citizens to appear on TV.

"A long time ago," he said, "the council broadcast everything, including 'public comment.' But I was told that during the whole Best Buy period" -- years of tumult in the mid-'90s over the city's desire to condemn a vast area of homes and businesses in order to make way for a new corporate headquarters -- "there was quite a bit of commotion, and the public was taking advantage of it."

The transparency problem may now be becoming more acute, because of the radical slowdown in development.

City councils that used to routinely meet past midnight, during bruising development controversies, are canceling planning commission meetings altogether and holding 20- or 30-minute televised meetings dealing with minor, routine business. There is no less demand, however, for big-picture planning -- and so much more than in the past, a large portion of what officials do is being done off camera.

Many officeholders say they do consider these things, and are willing to change their mind if there's a demand.

"You're right that the details we discuss in workshops sometimes don't come out in board meetings," said Barbara Marschall, a member of the Scott County Board. "We've brought that up ourselves. We've never really reached the point of saying, 'Yes, we should change' -- but it's been discussed.

Because people, she said, do watch -- much more than you'd think. "I'm always amazed by how many people say, 'I saw you on cable.'"