Board of Supervisors Close Doors and Okay MTA Budget

Late last night, behind closed doors, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted not to vote down the MTA's budget. Some compromises were reached on various aspects of the budget but apparently the $15 million that may or may not be taken from the cab business remains as part of the package. 

We don't know for sure because the subject apparently was thought too insignificant to mention by the Chronicle reporter. Whether or not to extract money from us was apparently not discussed by the supervisors. We don't know for sure. It was behind closed doors.

Why?

I'm not as familiar with the Board of Supervisors as I am with San Francisco commissions but it appears that the board is even more secretive. Last week they didn't allow any public discussion until all the items on their agenda had already dealt with by them. Which is a not very clever way of discouraging public discussions. 

You would think that the members of the Board would be more open because they can be voted out of office. But, that clearly is not the case with this group.

Does anybody know if the Board of Supervisors has historically behaved like this? Or, is this particular Board especially self-absorbed and non-responsive to the public?