The Marietta City Council is fiddling with its Web site policy while it should be giving priority to letting the sun shine on City Hall doings.

The urgent need is to make certain that never again will the mayor and/or a few staff decide on a plan such as buying back $29 million in bonds on the hotel-conference center and issuing $33.4 million in new bonds without full public disclosure and full discussion by the council – if not a vote by the people, the preferred way to decide such matters.

To his credit, Councilman Grif Chalfant formed a blue-ribbon advisory committee that recommended the city obtain independent legal and financial opinions on the proposal to issue some $33.4 million in refinancing bonds. A council majority agreed and that process is now underway. Just as important, the public now knows what is going on and will be informed fully by this newspaper about the independent opinions when they are received.

Now Chalfant tells me that he believes there should be a citizens committee created to deal with transparency in city government.

This needs to happen right away – although it’s a shame that a citizens committee is necessary to push City Hall into doing what should be standard operating procedure – letting the sunshine in on the taxpayers’ business.