Still in the dark

Check out this week’s letters section for an interesting response to the Sacramento City Council’s decision to shut the public out of its vote in support of gay marriage. (See SN&R Upfront’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell at City Hall” item, November 29.)

Upfront thought the move was sneaky and unnecessary, and a missed opportunity to engage the public on this important issue.

Well, according to Terry Francke, with Californians Aware—probably the state’s pre-eminent open-government group—the closed-door vote was not just lame, it was illegal.

Upfront sent a copy of Francke’s letter to Assistant City Attorney Rich Archibald, asking, once again, for an explanation of the secret meeting. Archibald did not respond.

That’s too bad, because now it appears the city has opened itself up to a lawsuit from anybody with an axe to grind about the city’s decision on gay marriage. More than a few such axe-grinders come to mind.