A diverse task force; Why craft homelessness policy behind closed doors?

COLUMN: In our opinion

It would be hard to envision a more diverse group than the city manager's new Task Force on Homelessness, beginning with the decidedly counterintuitive pairing of former City Manager William J. Mulford and former Mayor Jordan Levy as co-chairs.

The breadth of expertise is promising. Representatives of social service providers and neighborhood groups are included, along with elected officials, officers of nonprofits, academics, clergy, veterans advocates and more. The variety is important because homelessness is rooted in a wide range of social, economic, domestic, mental health and personal issues.

City Manager Michael V. O'Brien's decision to close the task force meetings to the public is apt to prove counterproductive.

To begin with, the notion that closed meetings will allow the group to "review, discuss and formulate solutions in an apolitical environment" is wishful thinking. The variety of viewpoints on the task force is its great strength, and there's not a shrinking violet in the bunch, but that diversity is hardly a recipe for disinterested, "apolitical" discussions.

In addition, the size and makeup of the task force guarantee that what happens behind closed doors won't stay behind closed doors for long - and the fragments that leak out inevitably will have taken on the leakers' spin.

The legal cover for skirting the state's Open Meeting Law - a 1991 case involving the hiring of a high school principal - is a ragged fig leaf, indeed. There is virtually no comparison between the roles of a group helping a superintendent screen job applications and of a task force charged with crafting broad municipal policy relating to homelessness.

The Open Meeting Law guidelines from the attorney general's office are clear. Its purpose is "to eliminate much of the secrecy surrounding the deliberations and decisions on which public policy is based." Its requirements "grow out of the idea that the democratic process depends on the public having knowledge about the considerations underlying governmental action, for without that knowledge people are not able to judge the merits of [its] action...."

That is a principle all public officials should take to heart.

Because of the complexity of the homelessness issue, organizing a task force is the right approach, as is the task force's mandate to recommend, before year's end, specific steps the city can take to reduce homelessness. Absent practical strategies, the task force report is apt to wind up collecting dust on the shelf.