The Galveston County Daily News

The Galveston Housing Authority, which badly needs to establish public trust, made a mistake in posting the agenda for its Oct. 19 meeting.

According to the agenda, the housing authority board had an executive session — a meeting behind closed doors — to review plans for rebuilding public housing.

Nothing in the law allows such a discussion behind closed doors. In fact, the law is clear that any such discussion must be in public.

The board includes people who know what the Texas Open Meetings Act requires. We’ve received compelling assurances that no such discussion took place and that the staff of the housing authority made a mistake in preparing the agenda.

We hope board members will talk to administrators about how important it is to scrupulously follow this law. A governmental body that claims to be open has to be able to conduct a meeting without running afoul of the law that requires that the public’s business be conducted in public. Any failure along that line erodes confidence in the agency.

That happened in this case.

The loss of confidence that resulted from this mistake is a shame, because the housing authority should play a role in helping the island recover from Hurricane Ike. The storm, after all, damaged at least three-quarters of Galveston’s housing stock. Tens of millions of federal dollars are available to help rebuild, and the community ought to be careful about rejecting help in any form. Instead, criticism of the housing authority has reached such a pitch that some people are arguing that the city should shut public housing down and send the federal dollars back.

Some critics have called for the elimination of Section 8 housing. That program, which offers subsidies to people who rent from private property owners, is an $8 million revenue stream into the island’s economy.

Put that number in perspective. If the Section 8 program were a business, it would easily be among the city’s Top 20. If Section 8 were eliminated, the economic consequences would be felt throughout the city.

Regardless of what you think about public housing or the Galveston Housing Authority, consider what happens to communities and organizations that lose large income streams. Is that really what Galveston needs?

Many islanders are perplexed by the divisiveness of the debate about public housing. The distrust is palpable.

We’d like to suggest that the road out of this morass begins with a principle that used to be taught in high school civics classes. Governmental bodies inspire confidence by being open and forthright about their plans. Governmental bodies that aren’t really up on what the law requires or that make clumsy mistakes with the law that guarantees the public’s right to know don’t inspire confidence.

If the housing authority is going to play the role it should in rebuilding Galveston, it has to take that responsibility seriously.