Brookhaven officials may have had valid concerns when it came to C Spire’s proposal to bring its ultra-fast, fiber Internet to residences.

But since the negotiations and discussions were done in closed meetings, the public had no clue what those concerns were. And it’s the public who stands to benefit from the Mississippi-based company’s services. Shouldn’t those who are directly affected by the Board of Aldermen’s decision to not enter into a contract with C Spire be privy to the reasons why? Of course they should.

Thankfully, city officials have decided to release that information to the public. But it took a column by Bill Jacobs to shine light on the issue. Without that column, we doubt the city would have volunteered the information.

Also of concern is whether the city was following the letter of the law when it discussed the C Spire negotiations in executive session. According to Daily Leader reporters, city officials used “contract negotiations” as the reason for entering executive session. But “contract negotiations” isn’t one of the listed reasons that public boards can enter into executive session.

If the city board had a more specific reason that’s allowed by state law, then it should state that reason before kicking the public out of a meeting.

Also at issue here is that state law allows the public’s business to be handled out of view of the public. Sure, there are legitimate reasons for closing public meetings. But state law allows far too many exceptions to the Open Meetings Act.

By law, all official meetings of any public body are declared to be public meetings and shall be open to the public at all times. Public boards are allowed to meet in executive session for 11 specific reasons. They range from personnel matters of public employees to discussions regarding the location, relocation or expansion of a business or industry.

And while there are sometimes valid issues included in each of those 11 reasons, that’s not always the case. For instance, not every discussion about a public employee should be held in closed session. By law, discussion of an employee who’s been fired can take place out of the public’s eye. But what if that person is a school bus driver who’s been fired for drinking on the job? Shouldn’t the public know, even if it potentially harms the employee? Of course.

Those 11 reasons are broad enough to allow public bodies to hide in executive session whenever they like – they can almost always justify it using one of the exceptions.

We encourage the Brookhaven Board of Aldermen, and all local governing bodies, to be as transparent and open as possible. We all benefit from an informed, educated public that knows what local governing bodies are doing.