These Letters Still Official Business

When the Moorpark City Council votes Wednesday on whether to stop sending copies of each council member’s correspondence to every other council member, it will be conducting official business.

This particular vote should bring a quick and unanimous NO, because writing a letter on the city’s behalf is also official business.

Secrecy and public service don’t mix.

Mayor Patrick Hunter proposed an end to the policy as part of an annual review of city policies. Had he cited soaring copying costs, blizzards of waste paper and bulging file cabinets, he might have earned our sympathy if not our support. But his explanation--”I just believe it is my right to write a letter to a resident and have that letter remain in confidence”--shows flawed understanding of what open government is all about.

That’s why Ventura County and its nine other cities all have similar policies to share copies of official correspondence.

We applaud efforts to review long-standing policies, especially those that increase government paperwork, to ask whether they’re still necessary. Sorry, Mayor Hunter, this one is.