The Governor's Housing Committee has set a public meeting for this afternoon, after a senator on the panel objected that an earlier vote by email on the committee's budget for the upcoming year for upkeep of the hilltop former Simplot mansion violated the Idaho Open Meeting Law. After Sen. Les Bock, D-Boise, objected, the panel's chairman, Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Meridian, scheduled today's meeting. "It is a good learning experience for all of us, including myself," Winder wrote in an email to the committee members.

Winder sought advice from Deputy Idaho Attorney General Brian Kane, who responded, "It appears that the committee will need to take corrective action in order to comply with the Open Meeting Law." That, he wrote, means acknowledging the violation, convening in a properly noticed and open meeting, voiding any previous action, and taking the business up again. In addition, Kane said all email traffic should be incorporated into the committee's record.

The public meeting is now set for 3 p.m. in the Len B. Jordan state office building, Room 155. The agenda includes the panel's $177,400 budget for the coming year, much of which would go to grounds maintenance. The Simplot family donated the hilltop home to the state as a governor's mansion, but no Idaho governor has yet lived there.