Finalists, schmienalists.

The Rockdale Reporter published a fine editorial in Thursday's edition slamming the Texas Association of School Boards for doing an end-run around Texas' open government laws.

TASB is helping the Rockdale School Board find a new school superintendent. RISD has 49 applicants. Of that number, they've decided to talk to six and expect to offer the job to one of those six on Dec. 10. Despite the fact that state law requires that a list of finalists be released to the public, Rockdale voters will know the name of only the person RISD trustees select.

Aren't the six people trustees will interview "finalists?" No, they are "candidates." Only one "finalist" will be announced. This follows the letter -- if not the spirit -- of state law. Go look it up -- Section 552.126 of the Texas Government Code.

Down in Karnes County, the Runge school board is doing the same thing. In fact, it's getting harder and harder to find information about the people who are applying for many top government management jobs.

Again, in Karnes County, county commissioners retired to executive session to interview interim candidates for the brand spanking new position of county road administrator, despite the fact that the county never advertised for the position as required by state law. I'll leave it to your imagination to figure out the relationship between those four applicants and the commissioners.

According to the Karnes Countywide, even the Karnes County Attorney, Robert Busselman, said the closed door meeting was unlawful. That's significant because, according to state law, it is the county attorney who prosecutes local violations of open government statutes.

No word on whether Busselman will indict the commissioners for the illegal meeting but he should. That's how this kind of thing is stopped. Most local elected officials have nothing but contempt for laws that require documents and meetings be open to the public.

Ah, well ... according the The Countywide, at least, reading between the lines, this isn't the only misstep Karnes County commissioners have committed implementing the new county road system. One hopes The Countywide will keep a bright light shining on these guys. They'll deserve what they get.

What Karnes commissioners did was unlawful. What Runge and Rockdale trustees did (or, more accurately, will do) isn't.

For the last several sessions, open government advocates and local newspaper editors and publishers have been trying to convince the Texas Legislature to address the issue of finalists for top school and college administration position, but to no avail.

Groups like TASB, the Texas Association of Counties, the Texas Municipal League and the Texas Association of District and County Attorneys -- to name only four of many -- carry a lot of weight in Austin. They carry a lot of weight because they represent local elected officials and most of the people in Austin were local elected officials before they became Legislators.

The fact is, these groups are beneficial, for the most part. This is good because they represent your tax dollars at work (local governments pay dues to these organizations; they get the money to pay those dues from you). However, they also spend an inordinate amount of time picking apart open government laws looking for loopholes and exceptions so our local governments can avoid having the great unwashed juggle their collective elbows.

One thing is certain, especially in the more rural parts of Texas: the folks you elect to office would just as soon you stay away from meetings and leave 'em in peace so they can get on with the important business of spending your money.