The answer, as far as the Bay Area Council-backed convention is concerned, is almost certain to be yes. While a measure to call a convention has not been filed, my sources tell me that the convention would be a public meeting. The sessions might even be broadcast.
That’s wise. Permitting the convention to operate in secret would create an enormous political vulnerability for the effort. It’d be easy for opponents to defeat the idea of calling a convention – or defeat the convention’s recommendations — if they could argue that such a meeting would take place in secret.
But I do wonder if a secret convention might produce a better constitution. The difficult steps that would be required to make dramatic changes in the constitution would be easier to achieve without public and interest group pressure.
After all, the constitutional convention that produced the U.S. constitution met under a rule that the deliberations would be kept secret. No reporters or members of the public were permitted to attend. The rationale for this? They wanted a free, frank exchange of ideas.