Oshawa council just doesn't get it.

It's not only that you have to do everything above board, you also have to appear to be doing things above board.

So when council holds closed-door meetings where no reason is given for the privacy, meetings are announced barely 24 hours before they're scheduled to be held and the subject of the meetings is cryptic, what is a reasonable person to assume?

Tuesday evening Oshawa's acting City clerk sent out notice of a special meeting to be held at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, July 10. The meeting was closed to the public, with the clerk citing the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Municipal Act as reasons.

Add to the mix that the purpose of the special meeting was described as "to discuss an agreement respecting the City's property known municipally as 99 Athol St. E." and you can hardly blame a person for thinking something's not on the up-and-up.

To most people, 99 Athol St. E. is more commonly known as the GM Centre. Why not just call it that in the notice of the meeting, which the clerk usually does? Is there a reason to be so mysterious?

And to add fuel to the fire, the meeting wasn't even about the GM Centre. It dealt with legal issues concerning the City and the new ownership of the Oshawa Generals.

If this were the first time council resorted to this way of operating in secret, it could be overlooked. But council has repeatedly cloaked itself in the comfort of the closed-door meetings, citing the education section of the Municipal Act. They've done it for a previous meeting dealing with GM Centre management and they've done it with a meeting about a compost facility that left residents gagging on a putrid smell for weeks.

Not surprisingly, the secrecy has ticked some people off. At least one person has made a complaint to the Ontario Ombudsman about the closed meetings. The complaint was about yet another topic council discussed in private -- whether council should retain a public relations firm to develop a campaign that would pressure the federal government to act on Oshawa's harbour. The ombudsman has yet to release any findings of his investigation into the complaint.

Whatever the outcome, council needs to change this apparent penchant for secrecy but it's not getting the message.

Or at least it appears that way.