I grew up in a closed government environment in New York state. As a teenager, I would attend City Council meetings and shake my head at the process there. There was a conference room behind the dais, where the City Council would meet with the door shut before the actual official meetings. They would work out their votes, come into the formal meeting and act out the meeting and formalize the votes. They would allow public comment after it was all over.

It was a joke and everyone knew it.

Here, in Florida, we have the Sunshine Law and open government. Meetings are held in the open and the public gets to weigh in. You have a right to know what is happening and, with recent statute changes, the right to be heard before a vote.