D.C. open-meetings bill has promise.

SEATED AROUND a paper-strewn conference table, members of the D.C. Council are at times thoughtful, comic and combative as they debate how to balance next year's city budget. A tax on sugary drinks gets rejected; an idea to furlough government workers gets floated. Council members are doing the public's business, and, in a refreshing departure from past practice, the public this year is actually able to witness the events.

Council budget discussions have historically been closed to the public, a travesty that comes courtesy of the District's weak open-meetings law. Reporters, but not members of the general public, were permitted to attend some of last year's deliberations.

So it was a welcome development this year when Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D), responding to a formal request from the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute and other advocates, agreed to a live broadcast of the sessions on the government access channel. Even though no formal votes are taken during these sessions, critical decisions are made about taxes and spending, and they should be subject to public scrutiny. Some reporters have pointed out the limitations of the television access -- missing side conversations and personal dynamics outside of camera range -- but Mr. Gray must be applauded for moving in the right direction.

Still, the right of the public to witness such meetings really shouldn't rely on the whim of one person. One wonders, for example, what will happen next year when a different chairman -- who won't be in the middle of a fierce election campaign for mayor -- will be making the decision. That's why the council should take up legislation introduced by Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) that is generally patterned after a bill that The Post and other news organizations helped to develop. The earlier measure died in 2005, with Mr. Gray casting the disappointing deciding vote -- so it's encouraging that Mr. Gray is co-sponsoring Ms. Bowser's bill.

Hearings are yet to be held, and some parts of the measure may need tweaking. Nonetheless, we hope that the council -- having now seen the benefits of opening the doors of government -- will ensure they can never again be slammed shut.