Last night, City Council recessed their budget work session when it was apparent that Channel 12 had to leave just prior to 7 p.m. to accommodate paid programming back at their studio.  I commend the Council for their decision to wait and hold further financial presentations until a time when they can be broadcast for all to see.

Open government is a much better process for everyone.  It protects officeholders from false accusation, since everyone can see what really happened.

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A more open process would have been helpful in the Budget & Tax committee meeting of April 17.  Even though the meeting was open to the public and a few did attend, it wasn’t televised, and there’s a heated dispute now brewing over Councilman Abbatiello’s statement in last night’s work session that "the school board refused to answer" his questions.

As a matter of fact (two school board members and one member of the general public have confirmed this), Abbatiello was given a detailed answer to his question about the number of new students and staff — the question he referenced in last night’s meeting as not having been answered — by Assistant Superintendent Ken Green, at the same meeting where the question was originally posed.

I guess that’s why those meetings are held in a small room, not televised, and are scheduled at times when many cannot attend.  Three school board members (myself included) and the Superintendent were at a NSBA meeting in San Francisco when the Budget & Tax Committee discussed the schools’ request.
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The League of Women Voters’ Candidate Forum for City Council and Board of Education candidates is tonight, 6:30 p.m., in the auditorium at Roane State Community College in Oak Ridge.  I found a bit of irony in the fact that the COR group (opposing Crestpointe in the June 5 ballot measure) scheduled their meeting at exactly the same time in a different location; it gives the impression that local governance isn’t important to them.

The candidates may be just as happy to have the hecklers otherwise occupied.
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In Nashville, the House K-12 Subcommittee takes up a bunch of bills this morning, including HB0303 (McCormick) that would immediately convert us to the Fiscal Capacity Prototype devised by TACIR — an utter and complete financial disaster for most school systems in Tennessee.  It’s designed to force consolidation to only one school system per county across the state, through financial deprivation.  I hope it dies a swift and sudden death, in light of the fact that Gov. Bredesen is in the process of announcing his own BEP proposal.

I confess that I don’t know the specifics of his proposal, but word got back to me on Friday that "Oak Ridge would be happy."  Not that I want to appear cynical, but I won’t be comfortable until I see it for myself.
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I do confess some significant apprehension about basing the Oak Ridge Schools’ FY08 budget on proposals that haven’t yet been approved by the Legislature, which is showing all the signs of going long this year.