Evans: Private, members-only meetings frittering away trust

I was asked to speak recently at the annual conference of the National Freedom of Information Coalition. My remarks boiled down to a simple message: The public needs more information about their governments, not more secrecy from their governments.

I explained a troubling trend I see worming its way through local governments in Iowa. This trend cuts at the heart of the public meeting law that has served our state and its citizens well for 50 years.

Open meetings of government boards, councils and commissions give the tax-paying public a seat from which they can monitor what government boards a...