SANDPOINT - The city is aggressively defending its decision to shut the public out of a meeting involving oil and coal train traffic issues on Thursday.

City attorney Scot Campbell said the meeting was not public because there was no quorum among the elected officials from other cities and Bonner County. State Sen. Shawn Keough and officials from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality also attended.

"It was a group of regional leaders and invited guests, including IDEQ, taking the opportunity to meet with their senator to discuss an issue of regional, if not statewide, concern," Campbell said in an email.

Sandpoint resident Randy Stolz tried to join the discussion but was told by Sandpoint Mayor Carrie Logan that the meeting was closed to the public.

The city's gaffe coincidentally occurred the same day Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden and Idahoans for Openness in Government conducted a workshop in Sandpoint to educate local government officials and the public on the state's open meeting law.

No Sandpoint officials attended the workshop. Campbell said no one from the city attended because they are already well-versed in open meeting law.

Meanwhile, other officials are wondering why the city would not want the public to know about the meeting or allow it to participate in a discussion about the environmental and public safety concerns related to increasing rail traffic through the community.

"It's the kind of meeting where you want the public there. You want them knowing the kind of work you're doing and that you're working on these problems," said Bonner County Commission Chairman Cary Kelly, who attended Thursday's meeting.

Kelly said nothing in the discussion would have necessitated a meeting behind closed doors.

"The subject matter certainly wasn't the kind of thing you have a closed-door meeting about. It was just the opposite," Kelly said.