The Indiana Publisher

Page 4 July 2021 Looking for an employee? Post your open positions at www.hspa.com/jobs/post-a-job/ or email info to sgoldsby@hspa.com. Your job listing will appear online and in the Indiana Publisher's job listing. Editorial Board The Purdue Exponent Purdue President Mitch Daniels wrote a column for the Washington Post in 2018 titled, "Government transparency has gone too far." In it, while he agreed that many open door laws have benefited society, he claimed society may have gone overboard regarding what should be considered public knowledge. "Under 'open meeting' requirements forbidding mem- bers of governing bodies to confer privately," he wrote, "the result is furtive hallway conver- sations or 'executive committee' meetings where the discussion might not technically fall into the category of exemptions that permit such meetings." That is what the president has appar- ently been doing with Purdue's board of trustees. Board packets and 'advisory and deliberative' information Trustees meetings, which are typically held once a month, proceed in the same fashion each time. Items are brought to the board's attention, board members look through alleg- edly confidential packets full of "advisory and deliberative" information, they will briefly discuss the details they wish to highlight and then they'll quickly vote before they move to the next topic We requested the board packets for the June 11 meeting on June 5, and we were told by the board's corpo- rate secretary the items would be sent "after they have been approved." They were never sent. Purdue spokesperson Tim Doty said in an email July 9 that the board members receive board packets that contain infor- mation on the meeting agendas "well in advance," giving board members time to study the mate- rial and understand issues. So why can't we see them yet? "There's no reason you can't be getting a copy at the same time as the trustees," Steve Key said in a phone call July 8. Key, the executive direc- tor of the Hoosier State Press Association, argued that the board must provide the public with all of the decision-making information it has. "Only rationale for with- holding the board packet is the administration wants to control its message," he wrote in a June email. "That isn't a statutory basis for denying access to the records. In fact, it's the antith- esis of the statute's intent." Board meetings typically leave no room for public com- ment. Members vote without much discussion, as if they have already come to a decision beforehand. An email from Doty in June seems to confirm that suspicion: "As soon as items are voted on or the meeting ends, we send out the news releases," he wrote in answer to our ques- tion about a vague agenda item. "That would indicate a decision was already made," Key agreed. During that particular meet- ing, news releases were sent out at about the same time as items were voted on – not even after the meeting ended. But if news releases were already prepared before the meeting, when were those decisions made? Executive sessions The board usually holds an executive session 24 hours before each public meeting. The purpose of an executive session is to discuss confidential matters and should be used "sparingly," according to state law. "They should not be held regularly, nor should they be a standing meeting on a govern- ing body's schedule," the public access laws handbook reads. State law defines specific instances in which an executive session out of public view is jus- tified. To hold an executive ses- sion, a government agency must cite the specific state statute that pertains to each item to be dis- cussed in secret. "They have to let you know what items they're gonna dis- cuss behind closed doors," Key said. But the board seems to have found a creative way around this. The trustees cite the same seven statutory exemptions listed in each notice of execu- Editorial: How Purdue's trustees operate in secret "They have to let you know what items they're gonna discuss behind closed doors. But the board seems to have found a creative way around this." — Steve Key HSPA executive director, general counsel In 2018, Purdue President Mitch Daniels wrote a column in the Washing- ton Post titled "Government Transparency has gone too far." See Purdue, page 5

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