The importance of Maine’s Right-to-Know law was recently defended strongly by Gary Sinden, a York County Commissioner from Eliot. His argument that the York County Budget Committee violated this law was a clear explanation of why public officials should live up to their responsibility to keep the public informed.

Maine law requires that deliberation of public issues must be conducted openly. As Sinden wrote on this page last week, “Open government is vital to the interests of the citizens and the Press. It is how we do democracy here in Maine. It is everyone’s responsibility to protect open government.”

But while Sinden and the Journal Tribune are in agreement that the law requires public deliberations, the newspaper was not able to establish that the York County Budget Committee’s chairman acted illegally by conferring with members of the committee by telephone.

Several members who were called told the newspaper that the chairman did not ask them to support a proposal that later came before the committee. We also interviewed several experts on the Right-to-Know law who said that although this approach may have violated the spirit of the law, the chairman’s telephone calls did not constitute an illegal meeting.

Still, there is no denying the fact that a complicated proposal was passed by the budget committee without public discussion.

We have often wished the standards of Maine’s law lived up to its good intentions, but there are many gray areas awaiting clarification from the Legislature or the courts.

Sinden believes the Journal Tribune’s story muddled the clear intent of the law. But he has taken no steps to resolve the issue, other than speaking up at meetings and criticizing the newspaper.

We agree that telephone conferences jeopardize the public’s right to remain informed about public issues. The next step might be for an individual aggrieved by such practices, or the York County District Attorney’s Office, to take formal steps to help clarify the rules regarding public meetings.