WHEN MONEY'S TIGHT and city officials try to make sweeping, across-the-board cuts, inexpensive programs that actually save the city money (or serve a key public function) often wind up on the chopping block. That's what's happening with the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, which has lost its full-time administrator, and with two important commissions, which have stopped broadcasting their meetings on the government TV channel.

In both cases, the savings are relatively minor – and the potential costs are big.

Longtime task force administrator Donna Hall has retired, and her job hasn't been filled. That means the task force office in City Hall is closed, and there's nobody directly responsible for handling sunshine complaints. Worse, because the office of the Board of Supervisors' clerk, which oversees that post, is being forced to take a 7.5 percent budget cut, clerk Gloria Young is proposing to replace Hall with a half-time person.

Yes, eliminating the full-time task force administrator will save a few thousand dollars a year. But it will also make it harder for the public to monitor the operations of local government – and if there's one single overarching lesson that we've learned from the past mayoral administration (and the current budget crisis), it's that secrecy and unaccountability are hugely expensive. One improper sole-source contract, one sleazy land deal, one improper tax cut, one crony hire in some backwater city agency would cost the city far more money than properly funding the agency whose job it is to let the public monitor exactly that sort of behavior. That's why the Sunshine Ordinance specifically states that the city has to provide a full-time administrator for the task force.

Meanwhile, both the Planning Commission and the Police Commission have decided to cut costs by turning off the cameras that used to broadcast their meetings. Not only does this make it harder for the general public to monitor two of the most important agencies in city government, but it also eliminates a valuable public record of the proceedings. Activists who want to see exactly who was saying what (and how the audience responded) often use the video records. Even city planning staffers who need to review testimony routinely use DVDs of the meetings. That's way better than just audiotapes, which can be confusing, or written minutes, which are often incomplete.

In the end, eliminating public access to, and oversight of, government is not only bad policy, it's also bad economics. The supervisors need to restore those cuts.