I have long praised the City of Asheville for its transparency. An exception was when I complained because staff reports numbered at least 300 pages for a long while. Avid reader and councilman Cecil Bothwell agreed the information was too much for due diligence and bordered on obfuscation.

A second complaint is a new habit I am not liking. Tuesday’s incidents were not the first. For all their increased openness, prolific forums and opportunities for online participation, they introduced two items at their last meeting that were not included with the published staff reports. One was a revised resolution condemning HB2 that was described as stronger and better than the one published with the minutes. The other changed a recommendation in the UDO to a requirement for developers to meet with neighborhood representatives. Somebody might have cared enough to show up and say something had they known.