Edmonds: ‘Secret’ and ‘private’ are not the same

Published 9:09 pm Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Most dictionaries define “secret” and “private” to mean pretty much the same thing. But in our society most people know that those two words do indeed have different meanings, and are not often used interchangeably.

Here is just one example of the difference. The same citizens who are making such a big deal of the incident described by Ray Martin in his letter last week, all know that city council frequently holds executive sessions. Those sessions are “private” meetings — they are not open to the public. But those same meetings are not “secret” meetings — because their existence is known by the public.

Some city business is conducted at meetings open to the public, and other city business is conducted at “private” meetings.

Ron Wambolt

Edmonds