Published Friday, September 26, 2008
Library board work session appears to have violated open meetings law
The Times-Herald
Coweta Library Board Attorney Pat McKee reiterated Wednesday that last week's private board work session was legal, but he refused to back up his assertion with any explanation or legal citation.
The work session appears to have been held in violation of the Georgia Open Meetings Act.
McKee did not return repeated telephone calls asking for an explanation of why he told the board members it was OK to hold the private work session following a called meeting last week. Visitors at the meeting were told that it was no longer a public meeting and were shooed out the room.
McKee was asked for an explanation Wednesday following a board meeting. McKee said he had no comment and that questions should be directed to Board Chairwoman Liz Camp.
Camp had previously stated that McKee told the board that closing the meeting was legal. When told that Camp had directed legal questions to him, McKee said he had no comment.
When asked if he thought the meeting was legal, McKee said that it was "absolutely" legal. When asked if he could provide some explanation of how the meeting was not a violation of open meetings laws, McKee walked away.
Under state law, public meetings can only be closed for three reasons: to discuss pending legal action, to discuss personnel and to discuss the sale or acquisition of real estate.
The law is quite clear that when a meeting is closed, the agency members must vote to close the meeting and that an affidavit must be signed stating the matters discussed at the meeting are in line with what the law allows. No affidavit was included in the minutes from the Sept. 15 meeting. No minutes were taken during the workshop, according to Board Secretary Ed Adams.
The work session was held for board members to discuss how to speak to the Coweta County Board of Commissioners at a public hearing on the 2009 budget on Sept. 16.
David Hudson, attorney for the Georgia Press Association, was asked if there is any possible way the private work session could be legal.
"Public officials cannot meet in a closed or non-open session without first convening a properly noticed and open meeting. And then someone must make a motion to go into closed session, and that motion must pass," Hudson said. "And then the closed session must be for a purpose allowed by the Open Meetings Act."
The minutes of the meeting say that the work session was held after the meeting because the topic "could not be discussed in this meeting because of laws regarding called meetings." The discussion of how to talk to the commissioners was not included on the published agenda for the meeting.
However, the open meetings act states: "Failure to include on the agenda an item which becomes necessary to address during the course of a meeting shall not preclude considering and acting upon such item."
When asked if he could see any way that the work session was not a violation of state law, Hudson responded, "There is no justification for closing a meeting to the public because of being a called meeting or dealing with a matter that was not on the agenda."
McKee is paid by the library board with public money. His payment is based on an hourly rate.
Additionally, the board has still not provided access to the sound recording of the Sept. 15 meeting. The recording is "public document" as defined by state law. Under the Georgia Open Records Act, public documents must be provided within three business days. The initial request was made Sept. 16 at approximately 8 p.m. A second request was made Sept. 19.
Under the law, if the documents can't be made available within the required time frame, a detailed description of the records, along with a time table for their release, must be provided.