The panel charged with improving openness and accountability among city employees and officials sure hasn't been practicing what it preaches.

The city's Ethics Hearing Board, which had been dormant for 16 years, was revived in 2006 as allegations came to light against former City Councilman Twanda Carlisle, who now is serving a sentence for a kickback scheme.

A year later, after Mayor Luke Ravenstahl participated in a charity golf outing as a guest of UPMC and the Penguins while both were doing business with the city, the panel undertook a review of the ethics rules.

A task force appointed by the ethics board met 16 times, and its work on the receipt of gifts, tickets and participation in charitable events by city employees and officials is nearly complete. But members of the public still can't see what the panel has in mind.

On Friday, the ethics board reviewed the working group's recommendations in private. City Solicitor George Specter offered little justification for the privacy, and experts with the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association said the discussions should have taken place in the open.

Even after the board moved into a public session later in the day, it would not release copies of its proposed regulations.

The public's first look at the new rules won't come until the matter goes before City Council. Then, as with all policy matters, a public hearing will be scheduled before any changes can be enacted.

Even if city lawyers were telling them they could get away with closed-door meetings, why didn't the ethics board members insist on an open process?

The goal of the ethics rewrite is to create clear, concise guidelines for city officials, employees, contractors and the public. Citizens should have been able to watch the process unfold.