Lost their lunch: Council Cancels Off-Camera Lunch

No free lunch for Council and Board of Education today! 

The Montgomery County Council lunch meeting (lunch paid for by taxpayers) with the MCPS Board of Education that had been scheduled for today at noon is now shown on the Council agenda as cancelled.

The agenda also now shows that the meeting would have been held in the 5th floor conference room of the Council building and not televised. This blog alerted readers to this Council-Board lunch on February 23, 2010.  At that time the room location of the lunch was not shown and the notation "not televised" was absent.

The lunch meeting was also not shown on the Board of Education Agenda.  If the lunch meeting was not disclosed by the Board of Education that would have constituted a violation of the Maryland Open Meetings Act if the meeting was used to lobby the Council, or if the Board considered actions at the request of the Council.

The issue of the compliance of these Council - Board of Education lunch meetings with the Maryland Open Meetings Act was the subject of an opinion of the Maryland Open Meetings Act Compliance Board on January 30, 2009. At the time of that complaint, there was no record of past lunch meetings available for the public. However, since that decision there have been two Council - Board lunch meetings and both have been videotaped by the Parents' Coalition. These videos are available here. (Second video to be uploaded soon.)

The public can now watch these videos and decide if these meetings were used by the Board to lobby the County Council, or if the Board considered actions at the request of the Council.

The public can also weigh the cost and benefit of providing these elected leaders a taxpayer supplied lunch for off-camera meetings with no published minutes.

The Maryland Open Meetings Act states in part:

It is essential to the maintenance of a democratic society that, except in special and appropriate circumstances:

(1) public business be performed in an open and public manner; and

(2) citizens be allowed to observe:

(i) the performance of public officials; and

(ii) the deliberations and decisions that the making of public policy involves...

(b) (1) The ability of the public, its representatives, and the media to attend, report on, and broadcast meetings of public bodies and to witness the phases of the deliberation, policy formation, and decision making of public bodies ensures the accountability of government to the citizens of the State.


(2) The conduct of public business in open meetings increases the faith of the public in government and enhances the effectiveness of the public in fulfilling its role in a democratic society.