‘Three decades later, Gleason had become a special counsel to Gov. Charlie Crist on open-government issues and was widely recognized as one of Florida’s top experts on public meetings and records.
But in 2007, she became disheartened that some attorneys wanted to expand the power of local government boards to hold closed-door meetings to discuss legal matters. She wrote an article for a Florida Bar publication criticizing the idea.
”Shouldn’t the people have a right to expect that closed meetings held to discuss how to spend their money are limited and restricted in scope?” she wrote.
For Gleason, the article reflected part of her basic view after more than 30 years of studying open-government issues, giving advice and mediating disputes: Government is more accountable and effective when it is open to citizens.
”The public should be welcome at the door because they make government do a better job,” Gleason said during a recent interview in her Capitol office.’
BC- Ms. Gleason was the go- to “guru” that this writer spoke to when hit with a bogus “Sunshine’ violation…that never went beyond an “excuse” to throw me off the LBTS P & Z Board…courtesy of those who thought I would not be fair in making decisions on the dais…although my voting record in my brief time up there proved otherwise…
Ms. Gleason said while she could not render an opinion….she saw no Sunshine violation…and encouraged me to contact the then LBTS Town Atty…( that’s a whole other story)…She was most helpful and keenly interested in how it all panned out…It petered out…I was ceremoniously thrown off the board…The accusations quickly died away…And a SLAPP suit that was an “off shoot” of the trumped up charges…also went nowhere…due to it having no merit…It was just a scare tactic used to muzzle ….with an assist from the Florida League of Cities who provide legal counsel for all advisory and elected officials…..facing these sorts of situations…
full text link below….
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/issues_ideas/story/948697.html
