The Coos County commissioners blundered badly Wednesday in making their decision in a phase of the hotly debated proposal to site a liquefied natural gas facility on the North Spit.

But what is likely to get John Griffith, Nikki Whitty and Kevin Stufflebean in hot water is not what they decided, but the ham-fisted way they did it.

The three met briefly — before a crowd so large the meeting had to be moved to a bigger room — to finalize the 15 conditions prepared by county staff for the approval of a land-use application.

Zip.

Zip.

Zip.

In under 10 minutes, the three agreed to formally vote on the conditions at their next meeting — and then they were gone, leaving in their wake, dozens of Coos County citizens scratching their heads in confusion.

Many of those at the meeting naturally wondered what the commissioners had just done — and were curious about those conditions. But their requests for copies of the conditions were rebuffed by county staff.

Wrong.

Wrong.

Wrong.

The conditions were clearly public record and should have been made available to that public.

None of the commissioners disagreed. All three said after the meeting that the material should have been provided to the citizens who requested it.

That’s reassuring, but it isn’t enough.

When it comes to meeting public information mandates, the buck stops with Griffith, Whitty and Stufflebean. It is up to them to make sure those responsible for providing that information are apprised of their obligation.

This isn’t the first time Coos County citizens have been kept in the dark by the Board of Commissioners.

But it should be the last.