Readers of a certain age will remember the literal “cone of silence” that frequently descended over the slapstick spies of TV’s Get Smart, a 1960s James Bond spoof that gleefully mocked the culture of secrecy in government.
Today, our local elected officials have a loftier-sounding name for the cone of silence they employ to keep us from overhearing their private discussions about public business. They call it “executive session” — a legally allowed but often misused mechanism for closed-door meetings.
And as we saw once again on July 15, Charleston Mayor William Cogswell and Charleston City Council have grown all too quick to lower their executive session cone of silence anytime a real debate threatens to break out in public view…