Council Breakfasts To Open to Media

Cropp Changes Stance as Bill Looms

The D.C. Council, which has been criticized for years for holding private breakfast meetings before its regular public sessions, will open the meetings to reporters beginning next week, council Chairman Linda W. Cropp said yesterday.

Cropp (D) said she made the decision after receiving requests from several reporters.

"They said they wanted to come, so I said, 'Okay, I'll let you come in,' " Cropp said, adding: "I think people will be surprised. It's not what they think it is. And certainly nobody is going to say anything that they would not want the media to hear."

Cropp's decision marks a sharp turnaround from two years ago, when she ousted two reporters who tried to attend one of the breakfast meetings. Her change of heart comes as two council members are drafting legislation to outlaw the breakfasts, which have been held before the council's monthly legislative session since at least 1991.

Under current law, the council and other public bodies in the District may meet in private as long as no "official action of any kind is taken." Under legislation being drafted by council members Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3) and Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5), the council and other public entities would be required to open meetings to the public whenever a quorum is present. For the 13-member council, a quorum is seven members.

Patterson, who is running to succeed Cropp as council chairman, said she has been working on the issue for nearly a year in collaboration with community and media organizations.

"I think you get better government the more that people are involved," Patterson said. "The more open, the more transparent, the more involvement. It's a good and healthy thing."

Orange, who is challenging Cropp for the Democratic mayoral nomination, said he began working on the bill to force Cropp "to open up this government."

"She's been hiding behind these closed doors for quite some time," Orange said. "Under our bill, there would be no more of these private little behind-the-door breakfast meetings where you work out the vote before the vote is actually held."

The closed meetings deny the public "the full benefit of understanding where each council member is coming from because the real vigorous debate takes place behind closed doors," Orange said. "On the dais, it's pretty much a done deal."

Orange said the practice was particularly insidious during deliberations over whether to pay for a new baseball stadium.

In the final hours before the deal was approved, for example, Cropp called the council into a private meeting where she and other baseball boosters lobbied their colleagues to save the deal, according to several people present.

In the past, Cropp and other council leaders have argued that the private meetings promote frankness and candor among council members, permitting controversial issues to be ironed out in advance of legislative sessions and avoiding public rancor.

Cropp defended the private meeting on baseball, saying no votes were taken behind closed doors. "We had to come back out on the dais, then we voted," she said. "All open, all public."

Although Cropp is for the moment giving in to her critics, she predicted that the private meetings will soon return. "I think people will see a difference in how the council functions," she said. "We've had breakfast meetings since I came on the council, and everyone says it helps the council to function much better."