This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Old habits are hard to break. Even when the damage they do is so obvious to all involved.

No, this isn't another editorial about e-cigarettes. But about another addiction.

The pull felt by the board and management of the Utah Transit Authority to ignore its nature as a public agency and keep various — or any — of its activities out of public view is apparently very strong indeed.

How else to explain a recent decision that meetings of the UTA board's various committees are to become closed-door "work sessions" from which the public that rides, and pays for, the transit system will be excluded.

UTA says the committees are not public bodies and so are not covered by the state's open meetings law. That legal opinion is almost certainly incorrect. Even if it isn't, the decision to keep any of the board's deliberations out of sight can serve no purpose other than to bolster an already dim view of the agency's leadership and raise questions about what it is up to.

Among those objecting to a policy that allows board members to work out their plans in secret and rubber-stamp decisions in public are Gov. Gary Herbert and his challenger in the Republican primary, Jonathan Johnson. Utahns await their efforts to end similar practices among Republican members of the Legislature.

This contempt for the public was clearly a big reason why so much of an area that desperately needs improved and expanded public transit services last year voted down a proposed tax hike that would have gone for that very purpose.

Voters in Salt Lake, Utah and Box Elder counties knew the need. They just didn't trust UTA to make wise use of the money. So, even though the small sales tax hike was approved in Davis, Weber and Tooele counties, dreams of a greatly expanded and more efficient multi-county transit system are moving forward on two flat tires.

At least the board should have waited until it had filled the vacant position of executive director and sought the opinion of that person before making this self-destructive decision.

Hiring a new boss will, however, be a face-saving chance for UTA leaders to walk this back. As board members search the planet for their new executive director — and, given how much they are willing to pay, they should have their pick of the profession's best and brightest — they must pay special attention to finding someone with a demonstrated ability to operate in a welcoming, fully transparent manner.

It's the only way UTA will be able to win the public confidence it needs to do its job. A job we all need done.