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St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge Kristine Kerr gathered the lawyers representing various factions of city government: Pine Lawn Mayor Terry Epps, city administrators and members of the Board of Aldermen, including Dionne Peeples-Jones.

In January, Jones and three other aldermen filed an open records lawsuit against the mayor and administrators. The aldermen were not being provided budget documents and contracts they needed to make decisions as elected officials. Things were so bad that aldermen filed Sunshine Law requests to get the documents, but even that didn’t work.

So they went to court. And it worked. In March, Kerr issued an order requiring Epps and administrators to make sure aldermen were provided the documents they need to do their jobs. But a couple of weeks later, Jones’ attorney, Lynette Petruska, notified the court that there were still issues, such as contracts being paid before the aldermen voted on them.

Back to court. That’s where the lawyers were last week, when they suddenly started sounding in harmony.

“I believe we’re going to work things out,� Petruska told the judge. “That hopefully means we can move to dismissal without any further action or a trial.�

The lawyer for the city — Dorothy White-Coleman — also said her clients were ready to move on.

“The city’s goal here has always been to be transparent and not to hide anything,� White-Coleman said.

Better late than never.

“We’re willing to give the plaintiffs the documents they’ve requested, to the extent that we have them,� she said.

One city down, one to go.

Pine Lawn isn’t the only community in north St. Louis County where mayors and city administrators are keeping public documents from other officials. In Jennings, Councilwoman Nadia Quinn filed an open records lawsuit in February against Mayor Gary Johnson and other city leaders because they won’t respond to her Sunshine Law requests.

That lawsuit is ongoing.

In Pine Lawn in particular, there is a long and sordid history showing why such disputes are bad for good governance. A former mayor, Sylvester Caldwell, went to prison on federal extortion charges in 2015. Former police Lt. Steven Blakeney later went to federal prison for conspiring to falsely arrest and jail a mayoral candidate.

When bad actors use the levers of government against their political opponents, citizens lose. And the way those bad actors get away with corruption — at least for a while — is by hiding the government’s business from the people.

As though to emphasize how serious the problem is, Blakeney has been filing a series of frivolous lawsuits against the people and lawyers who have taken him to court over the years in civil and criminal cases. The cases have cost Pine Lawn taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most of Blakeney’s lawsuits have been dismissed, but they highlight why city leaders would be wise to do their business in public, even when aldermen and the mayor argue over which bills to pay and which contracts to sign.

Here’s how Petruska described the issue of government officials refusing to turn over public documents:

“When someone, including an elected or appointed official, acts like s/he has something to hide, it is usually because s/he does,� she wrote in the lawsuit against Pine Lawn.

For now, with Pine Lawn’s leaders promising to do their business in public, that lawsuit is on hold. It’s a step in the right direction. Hopefully the folks in Jennings are paying attention.