PLAIN DEALER:
The backtrack comes one day after the ACLU blasted a plan by Zanotti and county Administrator James McCafferty to hold many transition meetings behind closed doors. The committees will suggest cost-savings and other measures to a new county executive and 11-member council that will take office next year in a new, voter-approved charter government.
But Zanotti said it was not ACLU's saber-rattling that changed his or McCafferty's minds. He blamed a lack of organization for the delayed acceptance of full transparency.
"This process is in its infancy, and we're just getting organized," Zanotti said.
"Honestly, I don't think it did" make a difference, he said of the ACLU's threat of a lawsuit if officials did not open all meetings to the public. "They may have jumped the gun a bit.
McCafferty and Zanotti previously expressed concern that allowing reporters and citizens at all meetings would distract volunteer transition advisers from speaking freely. They also worried about having media around when discussing sensitive issues such as layoffs and consolidation.
But feedback from the transition group's public engagement committee, which has been meeting in private, ultimately convinced leaders to open the meetings, Zanotti said.
"Their feedback was that we're better off running the risk of people being reluctant to say something than we are raising conerns that we're making recommendations behind closed doors," he said.
A schedule of meetings will be released this afternoon, Zanotti added. The first public meeting is expected to be a public engagement meeting scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 17.