Canton Repository: Dann won't let fellow officeholders off hook

"Dann is telling everyone in Columbus that he won't let violations of the open meetings law go unchallenged. We welcome it." Canton Repository

From The Canton Repository, April 6, 2007

Dann won't let fellow officeholders off hook

Elected officials do not often cite the Sunshine Law to criticize the work of other government officials. But that's just what Attorney General Marc Dann did when he recommended that three members of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio resign. Why? Because, Dann says, they were nominated during meetings that were illegally closed to the public.

Usually, it is a news organization or, more rarely, a citizen who complains about closed government and then has to come up with the money to go to court and force the government to obey the law. This time, the state attorney general is calling the foul, even if it disrupts the first nomination to the PUCO by fellow Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland.

The first few months of a new term is time for elected officials to take public actions that help form their early reputations. Note Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's attempt to unseat the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections for its stewardship of an incompetent elections process. It is one example of this reputation building, and it also seems the right thing for her to do.

Dann is telling everyone in Columbus that he won't let violations of the open meetings law go unchallenged. We welcome it.