Navigating controversial issues and maintaining public openness can be a difficult two-step for public officials.

Tom Durkin of the Missouri attorney general’s office offers a primary rule.

“When in doubt, it’s open,” he said.

Mr. Durkin fills a new position of “public education director” under Attorney General Chris Koster’s administration, dealing entirely with the state’s open meetings and records law, known as the Sunshine Law. As an ombudsman and mediator, Mr. Durkin has been instructed to meet with all 114 county governments in Missouri.

He spoke Friday about the Sunshine Law with a dozen elected officials and staff members at the Buchanan County Courthouse.

“For those of you who sometimes struggle with its interpretation, welcome to the club,” Mr. Durkin said.

He recalled his coming-of-age years spent watching the Watergate scandal unfold. The crime was not the break-in, but the cover-up, he said.

“The consequence of not complying, of not having this law, can lead to the circumstances of 1972, 3, 4 and 5, which were a national embarrassment,” he said.

Mr. Durkin said he wished public critics could walk in an elected official’s shoes, and he noted that “90 percent of noncompliance is not out of malice but out of ignorance.”

County governments can uniquely make informality a formality.

A three-person county commission can often hold discussions more like a kaffeeklatsch than a parliamentary proceeding. Also, official operations can be hard to track, given the numerous independent elected offices.

Buchanan County Clerk Pat Conway said the county’s greatest complication with the Sunshine Law is whether a discussion among two commissioners must be considered a meeting.

“For sure (the most troublesome) is the incidental occurrences that come up,” Mr. Conway said.

Presiding Commissioner Royal “R.T.” Turner said officials can help themselves with a good track record of openness.

“Stressing the point, if you’re in doubt, keep it open, and trying to be open,” Mr. Turner said.

Mr. Durkin also struck the following notes:

The fact that a meeting can be closed doesn’t mandate that it be closed.

Anyone making public policy or receiving public money must comply with the Sunshine Law.

On the Internet, communicating to a quorum constitutes a meeting. Also, government can’t avert the law by using phones or electronics to hold discussions.

If an electronic discussion becomes a quorum, a copy should be made public.

Joe Blumberg can be reached at joeblumberg@npgco.com.