Wednesday, November 27, 2002
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Wednesday, November 27, 2002 |
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Commission to keep voting in secret sessions By JOHN THOMPSON
Despite an opinion from the Georgia Attorney General's office saying their executive session votes are illegal, the Fayette County Commission decided Friday to keep doing business as usual. That means the board will continue voting during sessions closed to the public. Commissioner A.G. VanLandingham has asked for the item to be on the County Commission's retreat agenda and said he had investigated how other governments conducted their executive sessions. "We're more open than everyone else," VanLandingham said. The only change VanLandingham wanted to see was the commission change the executive session to before the meeting at 6 p.m. "Years ago, that's how they did it here," he said. He said if the commission needed to vote on an item, it could then vote on the item during the regular meeting. But Chairman Greg Dunn said that could create even more problems for the board. "I just think then that people would think we were deciding on what we going to do during the regular meeting. We are the most law-abiding government around," he said. Dunn also said if the executive session ran more than an hour before the meeting, citizens would show up for the 7 p.m. meeting and wonder why the board had not started the meeting. "That would look even more suspicious," he said. The procedure surrounding how the county conducts executive sessions first popped up this summer when Tyrone City Councilman Ronnie Cannon said the board conducted numerous illegal votes behind closed doors. In October, the state's senior assistant Attorney General sided with Cannon. "This office continues to believe that votes on matters that may be discussed in executive session should be held in the open portion of the meeting, except where there is a specific statutory exception for the votes," senior assistant Attorney General Kathryn Allen wrote. She pointed out the exception is specific for personnel items, but "the absence of a specific provision in the real estate or attorney advice exception does not mean that those votes must be held in secret." The County Commission instructed staff to time how long their upcoming executive sessions lasted. If the sessions lasted more than an hour, they will continue to hold executive sessions after the regular meeting.
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