Changing the Channel

The D.C. Council's troubling attempt to keep the public from seeing a public meeting

MEMBERS OF the D.C. Council are

trying to make an issue of the decision

by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's administration to broadcast a taped council proceeding. The real issue is the council's ill-advised effort to stop the recording of a public meeting from being aired. Even more troubling is that a council whose members are so obtuse about what the public is entitled to know will now apparently have total control of a public access channel.

The controversy involves last week's questioning of a witness by a council committee investigating the donation of emergency fire equipment to a town in the Dominican Republic. It was, as the City Paper reported, a lively hearing in which Peaceoholics co-founder Ronald Moten accused council members of playing politics with his organization in an attempt to get back at the mayor. He also revealed new details, involving allies of the mayor, about the mysterious attempt to ship off an old fire engine and ambulance to the town of Sosúa.

Even though the session was open to the public, attended by reporters and taped by the Office of Cable Television, council members Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) and Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) made the preposterous claim it should be withheld from broadcast until the council completes its investigation. Apparently, Mr. Moten had refused the council's request for a closed-door deposition. Perhaps there were reasons for keeping his testimony secret, but if so the council should have figured out lawful ways of keeping the questioning confidential. It cannot retroactively take something off the public record. With the council's decision to take control of the channel devoted to council proceedings, we can only imagine what else -- a misstatement? an embarrassing moment? -- might be deemed unsuitable for public consumption.

The cable dust-up focuses new attention on the council's fire engine investigation, marked by a series of petty fights with the executive over witness access and other issues. Clearly there are still questions about the District's would-be gift to the Dominican Republic, but we increasingly share Mr. Moten's concerns that the council may be more interested in scoring points than in finding answers. A far better bet is the independent investigation now underway by the city's inspector general.