Here's a handy rule of thumb for all those who serve on state-sponsored committees, in organizations, or as members of task forces -- whatever: If you want to have a private gathering and you feel you have to check with the State Ethics Commission to see if said gathering follows open meetings laws, then it's probably just a bad idea.

It's a little like someone downing a few martinis at a bar and going outside, tapping a police officer on the shoulder, and asking, "So, are there many cops out tonight?"

Alas, when the 21st Century Transportation Committee received the commission's thumbs-up, members went ahead with a dinner party on private Figure Eight Island -- a gated haven for the wealthy near Wilmington -- and have now succeeded in calling their judgment and common sense into question. Not exactly a confidence-builder for the public when it comes to a group created by the legislature that's supposed to examine North Carolina's transportation needs, which are considerable.

There are some very bright people on the committee, but having this dinner wasn't smart. Not the least of these bright people is Brad Wilson, the group's chairman, who is chief operating officer of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina and a former chair of the UNC Board of Governors. Wilson certainly should have understood the elitist appearance of this affair -- social gatherings can be exempted from open meetings laws -- and how it would make members of the group look. Whether a public body is gathering to roll up its sleeves and work or dance to the rhythms of a flamenco band while hoisting drinks with those little umbrellas in them, it ought to do so in public.

"We're not having a meeting," Wilson told The Charlotte Observer in advance of the gathering. "We're having dinner." Now, did Wilson really think that members of the group would not discuss transportation, or their mission, or other things they're supposed to talk about in public, with the doors closed? In other words, that if someone said, "Hey, we really need to do something about I-40 near Asheville..." the others in attendance would go, "No, no. We must not discuss that here. This is a social gathering. You've got to try the sausage balls and the peanut butter on a Ritz."

One member of the group, and the host of the gathering, Lanny Wilson of Wilmington, was more realistic: "If I said it (the group's mission) wouldn't come up, that wouldn't be true. But it's not an organized meeting. There's no agenda."

That may fall under the letter of open meetings laws -- the group obtained a special ethics ruling, remember -- but it's really rather tacky for a public group such as this to consort in private elegance while figuratively, so to speak, keeping the people outside with their noses pressed against the window watching the la-dee-da crowd enjoy Cheerwine, pizza rolls, Hot Pockets, french fried onions, and pork skins. (Actually, one supposes they couldn't get to the windows, since Figure Eight is closed and guarded -- middle-class riff-raff are everywhere, you know.)

We can't wait to see what ideas these folks come up with for easing the state's transportation woes. "Make all interstates gated." "Special lane for gilded carriages." "Reserved for chauffeur-driven vehicles between 5 and 7 p.m." "This lane for caterers only."