The majority of Lawrence County commissioners did the right thing Friday by interviewing candidates for county administrator in public and releasing their names.

Privacy should never have even been an option. State law requires the process to be public, and it’s in the interest of the people whom the commissioners represent.

Commission Chairman Bradley Cross, who opposed the public interviews, explained that “there are some things that a lot of applicants would tell you, but being exposed by the press, they’re not going to let you have the full picture of their abilities.”

He may be correct in this comment on human nature, but what applicants will say in public is what ought to count. Public interviews encourage fact- and merit-based selection. They diminish the influence of friendship, family, politics and other unspoken reasons for which candidates sometimes get hired or rejected.

Commissioner Alma Whitlow, who also opposed public interviews, had refused to release the applicants’ names until she could contact each one. Her concern about their feelings and expectations of privacy is understandable, but the simple fact is that she had no right to keep the names secret.

Commissioners should have known upfront that the process would be open for all to see and hear. They should have informed applicants of this fact. And applicants who were serious about working for the public should have thought about the likelihood that the public would learn their names.

Morgan County officials were watching. On the same day that Lawrence was interviewing, Morgan’s Community Corrections and Court Services Commission made plans to hire a new director whose job will include administering a drug court.

Morgan County Attorney Bill Shinn told commission members that the applicants’ names are public records.

“We don’t want a situation like they have in Lawrence County,” Mr. Shinn said.

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