Open government?

It might not be a violation of the state's open government law, but it certainly violates the spirit of the statute.
At its first meeting, the new Bristol Downtown Development Corp. talked about creating a budget committee. John Leone, a former mayor who serves as a director, even suggested the panel consist of Mayor William Stortz, Frank Johnson and Gardner Wright.
But the corporate leaders, who are operating under the state Freedom of Information rules, didn't formally establish the committee.
Last Friday, though, Stortz got Wright and Johnson to join him in the mayor's office for an 8 a.m. session to set up a preliminary budget for the new company.
That meeting, Stortz said Wednesday, "was not posted."
At the downtown company's second meeting -- on Monday night -- the directors established the committee AND took its recommendation for a $350,000 budget to get things going.
Stortz said he doesn't think the open government law was broken by the gathering in his office.
"Technically, I don't believe we ever formed a committee" whose meetings would have to be posted, he said. "I don't believe we officially formed it."
That's nitpicking, though, since it's clear the panel existed and that its actions at the Friday meeting were ratified three days later by the nonprofit corporation.
"We were trying to do things right," Stortz said. "We're not trying to hide anything."
That's probably true, too, since everything the three directors decided was discussed openly a few days later.
It may be that this is one of those no harm, no foul situations. But the company's directors, and the mayor, need to make sure they're not skirting the letter of the law. They should err on the side of open government.