By now you’ve probably read about the problems experienced by users of Deschutes County’s new $5 million digital radio system for law enforcement.

Bend police officers feared the problems with communications were so bad they complained in December to the state that it was making their workplace unsafe. The county and its contractors have made improvements. It’s been about a year since the system was launched, though, and coverage inside police buildings is still being fixed. There even is a mysterious issue of missed transmissions when radios seem to be operating properly and there is no audio.

What has not been a serious problem has been the ability of the public to find out what is going on. Deschutes County government officials have been forthcoming and discussed the issues in open, public meetings. The county has also been responsive — for us at least — to requests for public documents.

But we noticed something odd Wednesday in an email from County Administrator Tom Anderson to commissioners. This week, commissioners were scheduled to meet individually behind closed doors with a technical consultant hired by the county to help with the radios. It’s a way commissioners can get information or request action without the public knowing what’s going on.

Because the county commission has three members, if two of them get together and start talking about the public’s business, it’s a public meeting. One way to dodge that requirement is for public officials to meet individually in a series with a person or persons behind closed doors.

The commissioners should not be doing it. We asked Anderson why it was necessary for the commissioners to meet with the technical consultant in this way. He directed us to talk to the commissioners and pointed out that there would also be a public meeting with the commissioners, the technical consultant, 911 staff and the contractor for the project, Harris Corp. But what do the commissioners need to do in secret?

First of all, Commissioner Tammy Baney said she is not going to meet with the consultant behind closed doors. She said any issues she has will be brought up in public. Commissioners Phil Henderson and Tony DeBone still plan to go ahead with the meetings. Henderson said he would repeat his questions in the public meeting if he learned anything important in private. DeBone told us in an email he wants to get to know the consultant “better and be more up to speed on the topic of radio system engineering and support. ADCOMM is our contract engineering lead for now and I want to learn more about their experience.” He can do that in a public meeting.

If there’s any issue that Deschutes County needs to be completely open about, it’s the problems with a $5 million system paid for by the public that can be a matter of life and death. Meet in public.