As chairman of the Rapid City Library Board of Trustees, Monte Loos' long tenure on the library board is commendable. His attitude toward the people's business is not.

Loos has overseen two of the most contentious library contract negotiations to date with the Pennington County Commission. Under his leadership, the two entities have reached a level of acrimony where productive compromise seems, at best, remote.

That's reason enough to question Loos' qualifications for the job, but his disregard for public involvement in the process is even more alarming.

On Oct. 10, Loos squelched any open discussion about the issue with a public reprimand to Pennington County Commissioner Ethan Schmidt when he ordered Schmidt not to air specific financial numbers about the contract negotiations in front of the media.

"We'll get into those issues in negotiations, not in a public meeting. I really don't want to get into that, especially with the media here," Loos said.

To which we wish Schmidt had replied, "Why not?"

In fact, any of the library trustees might have questioned the chariman and his insistence on hiding this important issue that affects so many Rapid City area families and library users.

There seems to be little local disagreement that the library board is a public body and therefore subject to the open meeting laws of South Dakota.

But those laws don't cover discussions by public officials unless a quorum of the board, council or commission is present. Since no official business can be transacted without a quorum, board members are allowed to negotiate in private sessions without violating the public's right to know.

In this case, we think that lack of transparency is hurting the public, not helping it.

Since both the county commission and the library board are public entities dealing with public tax dollars, all of the data necessary to set a fee for library services to county patrons should be public information.

As the impasse stands now, it is impossible for anyone to decide who is negotiating in good faith and who is not.

Shining a spotlight on this issue will only help the two negotiating parties frame it in a way that produces a signed contract based on a fair funding formula. We urge the library board and the county commission to hold contract negotiations at a time and place open to all.

More public scrutiny, not less, is the answer to this library funding issue.

If Mr. Loos thinks otherwise, he has become part of the problem instead of a party to a productive solution and should consider stepping down as chairman.