Dunkirk city lawmakers want to be more transparent with the public. So on Tuesday night, the group thought they took a step toward doing that by eliminating workshop sessions, which were held before the official council meeting.
It was the equivalent of raking leaves in a desert. It did nothing.
Workshop sessions are open to the public. Items get discussed in this session - quite candidly - and often reveal some interesting opinions. That is the way it is at many municipal and school board meetings.
Those workshops occur normally 30 minutes to one hour before the regular meetings. Are they inconvenient for some? Probably. But so are the regular meetings.
If Dunkirk council members wanted to be more transparent with their constituents, they did not have to worry about eliminating the workshop session. All they had to do was put an end to illegal executive sessions, which so many other government entities are guilty of as well.
But no government wants to be that transparent, especially when the tax bills come out.
