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[Note: This material is copyright by the Des Moines Register, and is reproduced here as a matter of "fair use" for non-commercial, educational purposes only. Any other use may require the prior approval of the Des Moines Register.]

• The Iowa Board of Regents drew the blinds, locked the doors and retreated from public view to conduct a search for a new president at the University of Iowa. After scuttling the failed search last fall, the regents didn’t hold a single public meeting where a majority of the board was present to discuss the presidential-search process. Rather, the members discussed how to resurrect the process with what one regent described as a barrage of e-mails that were ratified by telephone in a brief conference call.

• Amid what may have been one of the most controversial gambling battles ever, the Iowa Lottery Commission initially refused to release details of where TouchPlay machines were placed and how much revenue they were collecting.

• The Institute for Tomorrow’s Workforce, appointed by the Legislature and given a budget of nearly $1 million to recommend state policy on teacher salaries and student performance, shut the public out of a meeting held to discuss hiring a consultant.

There are other examples, large and small, of citizens being denied access to information about the governments they pay for and that are supposed to serve them.

One would think Iowa government officials would have taken to heart the lessons from the CIETC fiasco: that the people of Iowa expect to be able to hold accountable those who manage state and local governments. The abuse of public trust by leaders of the Des Moines-based job-training agency is not just about the criminal misuse of public money but the shocking degree to which so many local officials who were supposed to be protecting the public interest did not do their jobs.

Everyone should pay closer attention to these things, and that includes the public and the press. That is impossible, however, if the public and press are shut out of the process, as the regents, the Iowa Lottery and Institute for Tomorrow’s Workforce and too many other governments have sought to do.

These examples are evidence for specific changes the Legislature should act on immediately, this session, before launching a more exhaustive review of the state’s records and meetings laws:

1. Ban “walking quorums.” Lawmakers should prohibit the practice of rotating a member or two in and out of a meeting to avoid having a quorum, thus dodging compliance with the open-meetings law.

2. Open interviews with candidates for public jobs. The Legislature should spell out clearly that public interviews with job applicants are required.

3. Give the public immediate access to e-mails. E-mail exchanges between public officials should not substitute for discussions in public meetings, but e-mail is a reality. So public bodies should make e-mails available to citizens instantly. Also, the law should be updated to permit “virtual meetings” that citizens can monitor online in real time.

4. Don’t back down on publication requirements. Insist that salaries and spending by agencies such as CIETC be published in local newspapers. Period.

Whatever the Legislature does to tighten the law, it should make clear with unambiguous language that open government is the expected course of government in Iowa, not the exception.