TransLink’s board of directors got a new chairperson last week, and Marcella Szel immediately promised to open her secretive group up to the public. Currently, the board only meets behind closed doors, but Szel told 24 Hours she wants to change that (kind of):

“The board is looking at ways in which we can more effectively provide information to those who care to know around key issues,” Szel said. “We will use some kind of very interactive forum where those who are interested can come in and understand what the issues are that we’re grappling with, and where we are on those issues, and what the implications are.”

You know what the most interactive of forums is? Opening your meetings up!

Of course, outgoing chairperson Nancy Olewiler promised transparency too, and delivered zilch – blaming, of all things, the May 2013 provincial election.

Ridiculous. It has been six years and two chairs since Dale Parker and the TransLink board decided to stop holding public meetings. It should be an embarrassment to those board members, but they relish hiding from any real scrutiny of their decisions, I suppose.

And that secrecy has filtered down into TransLink’s other half-dozen boards: none of which meet in public. A $1.4 billion a year “public” organization – where the public is barred from watching the decision-makers.