The question is whether or not the public, through its duly-elected representatives according to a constitution, has created the thing and has put the duly-elec

The question is whether or not the public, through its duly-elected representatives according to a constitution, has created the thing and has put the duly-elected executor in majority control over it. If that is the case, I would call that a public thing. Other things, I would call private. Just because a group of people got together and made a thing -- even if that thing is usable by the public -- doesn't make that thing a public thing, if the public has no ability to make a binding decision through its democratic processes to change it.