SECRET MEETING OF DELAWARE'S HOUSE ETHICS COMMISSION

Delaware State Rep. John C. Atkins will meet may meet with justice today when he appears before the House Ethic Committee to explain his behavior last October, when we was given a pass by Ocean City Police for drunken driving, and was later arrested for domestic violence. You'll note the emphasis on the word "may," because that meeting is not open to the public. That policy is more than just a little troubling, because it prevents public oversight and it appears to deny Atkins his constitutionally guaranteed protection against double jeopardy. But let's put that issue aside for a moment and address only the secrecy.
Frankly, I'm hard-pressed to understand why this meeting is not open to the public. Atkins has no expectation of privacy on this issue. He's a public official who derives is salary from the tax-payers, and while some might suggest that there is a line of demarcation between his private and public lives, he clearly assumed his public role when he flashed his legislative ID to the cops who stopped him. That means whatever he said or did in that exchange is subject to public scrutiny and oversight.
To close the hearing to the public is to deny it that scrutiny and oversight.