When you are very grateful you live in Kentucky.

Former Frankfort State Journal reporter and UK School of Communications and Media graduate McKenna Horsley — now a reporter for the Huntington Herald Dispatch — contrasts West Virginia's public meetings law with the laws in other states, including Kentucky.

This follows a controversy involving text messaging by Huntington city council members during a public meeting.

https://www.facebook.com/419650175248377/posts/975350333011689/?d=n

Kentucky law is abundantly clear on this question (as is the right of appeal to the Kentucky attorney general when disputes under the open meetings arise violation — not an option in West Virginia).

"If Huntington were part of nearby Kentucky instead of West Virginia, the texts from a council member to another member would have been a violation of the commonwealth's open meetings law, said Amye Bensenhaver, an open government expert. Bensenhaver is a former assistant attorney general and is a co-founder of Kentucky Open Government Coalition. In Kentucky, the Attorney General's Office acts as an ombudsman on issues relating to open meetings and open records.

"Kentucky's open meetings law called for public meetings within the commonwealth to have certain meeting room conditions 'including adequate space, seating and acoustics, which insofar as is feasible allow effective public observation of the public

meetings.'

https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=42576

https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=42577

"'Observation,' Bensenhaver said, would include both hearing and seeing the public's business conducted at a meeting. A 2001 ruling from the Kentucky attorney general supports this. The case involved public officials who were whispering to each other during a meeting about public business and found them in violation of Kentucky's open meetings law.

https://ag.ky.gov/Priorities/Government-Transparency/orom/2001/01OMD110…

"'I would say any public official participating in a public meeting should err on the side of openness,' Bensenhaver said. 'And if people are communicating with them, you should share those comments publicly. I just don't see the point of … secretive discussions going on during a public meeting.'"