Highland must immediately halt secret meetings between two council members and an administrator right before council meetings. Not only is the public barred from these closed-door sessions because a quorum isn't present but Highland officials have said no public notice is required.

That may be technically true, but it's still wrong. The city has rebuffed requests by the Daily Herald for notification of such meetings even as a courtesy.

Such meetings look like a ruse to allow officials to deliberate and make decisions about public policy. The actual public meeting that follows the preliminary meeting then becomes a mere charade.

Such stealth pre-meetings are an abuse of the people's right to know what their elected officials are up to.

At a recent mayoral debate, Mayor Jay Franson as much as confirmed the ruse. He said that for the first two years of his term the only contact between council members was at publicly advertised meetings or by e-mail.

"I said, let's rotate with different people and let's meet for an hour and talk about future things," Franson told the audience. "Those who guessed there is something secret are conspiracy theorists. We are planning to look to the future. We never have more than two council members at a time. It is an attempt to get the council involved in looking at the future."

Now that's just plain insulting to the intelligence of the people of Highland. Of course there's "something secret" about these meetings: everything. These sorts of discussions should be taking place in the light of day.

Sneaky gatherings slam the door on the public. If this isn't an attempt to skirt the open meetings laws, what is it? Perhaps the Legislature needs to take a look.

If officials want to talk about the future, great. Do so in front of the people who will be affected by it.

Any city officials who participate in this sort of legerdemain ought to worry that the people will register their contempt at the polls on Tuesday.