04-04-2025
D.C. Council pulls the shades on sunshine in government
Back in 2004, before one of the D.C. Council's pre-legislative-session private 'breakfast meetings,' WTOP's Mark Segraves and I — wearing my Post columnist hat — planted ourselves in Linda Cropp's conference room until Cropp, the council chair, pleaded with and finally ordered us to leave.
After months of journalists' repeated efforts to penetrate the council's closed-to-the-public breakfast sessions, Cropp eventually bowed to the spirit of the city's so-called Sunshine Act, which requires council meetings to be open to the public when any official action is taken. She let journalists in on the calorie-laden legislative get-togethers.
