Rio Blanco Herald Times: Laws governing  public meetings, public records and open government emerged in the 1970s after the exposure of vast amounts of concealed government information and corruption — think Watergate and the Pentagon Papers. The idea was simple: government works better when the public can see how decisions are made.

You would think it strange to hand your hard-earned money over to an investment firm only to have them refuse to tell you how it was invested, what the profit margin was, or what caused any losses. Yet something similar often happens with our tax dollars, from the local level all the way up to the federal government.

Open meetings and open records laws are meant to prevent that. They ensure the public can review financial information, understand how decisions are made and attend the meetings where those decisions happen. In short, they are tools meant to promote transparency, accountability and trust.

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