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| Open Meetings Act |
This is the reply to the Board of Education's response to the Open Meetings Act complaint filed regarding the conduct of the Board of Education's credit card committee.
July 11, 2014
Ann MacNeille
Assistant Attorney General
Counsel, Open Meetings Compliance Board
200 St. Paul Place
Baltimore, MD 21202
Re: Open Meetings Act Complaint - Montgomery County Public Schools Board of Education
Dear Ms. MacNeille,
I am following up on the complaint I filed with your office on May 31, 2014 over an apparent
violation of the Maryland Open Meetings Act by the Montgomery County Board of Education. After
receiving a reply from the Board of Education on July 5 I am seeking to offer a clarification regarding the work of the ad hoc committee that allegedly first met out of the public view on May 6.
According to the Montgomery County Public Information Officer, Dana Tofig, the ad hoc
committee was created by a memorandum dated April 25, 2014, from Board of Education President Phil Kauffman. It is a major omission on the part of the Board of Education that the April 25th memorandum was not included in the Board's response to the Open Meeting Act Compliance Board. The memorandum is not publicly available on the Board of Education website. That document is needed to fully understand how this committee was created and the purpose of the committee. The failure of the Board of Education to produce this memorandum hampers the ability of the Open Meetings Compliance Board to render an accurate opinion in this matter.
The Board of Education's response speaks to a "gathering" as if somehow by re-naming a
meeting of Board of Education members the Open Meeting Act can be ignored. The ad hoc committee
has been meeting to conduct Board business and refine Board policy. The minutes show that the Board
members have discussed the use, misuse and abuse of school system credit cards. The Board members
have been meeting to formulate Board policy for use of school system credit cards going forward.
The Board of Education notes that the Montgomery County Public Schools general counsel has
participated in this committee. It is important to note that the Montgomery County Public School
general counsel is not the general counsel for the Board of Education. The Board of Education has their
own, separate legal counsel. The presence of the school system's general counsel would seem to
indicate that this committee will be reviewing the credit card policy of not only the Board of Education, but of the entire school system.
The ad hoc committee created by Board of Education President Phil Kauffman:
- is engaged in an advisory function as it discusses the development of new policy for Board expenditures
- it discusses a matter that is of great concern to the public
- is scheduled to report and make its recommendations to the full Board of Education at a meeting on July 28
The actions of the Board of Education have so far demonstrated a clear intention to circumvent
the Open Meetings Act. The expectation from the public is that matters such as board expense policies
would be discussed publicly. I am submitting a copy of a Washington Post Editorial that I believe reflects the mood of the public on this issue.
The initial action to exclude the public was criticized by many Montgomery County elected
officials and attracted the attention of the State Prosecutor who is currently conducting a criminal
investigation into Board of Education expenditures.
Thank you for your attention in this matter.
Sincerely,
Danuta Wilson
Attachments (5)
Cc:Kristin M. Koger
Don't forget to use the PIA to find out how much Venable got paid. And why couldn't you get a copy of the memo? I can't think of a reason legitimately under the PIA.
ReplyDeleteThe advance agenda for the Compliance Board Aug. 20, 2014 (Wednesday) meeting includes "Handling of responses that are incomplete." under "Explanation of staff's processing of complaints". Believe that discussion item would cover the omission issue raised in the second paragraph of the reply to the BOE's response to the Open Meetings Act complaint about the conduct of the BOE's credit card committee:
ReplyDelete"It is a major omission on the part of the Board of Education that the April 25th memorandum was not included in the Board's response to the Open Meeting Act Compliance Board. The memorandum is not publicly available on the Board of Education website. That document is needed to fully understand how this committee was created and the purpose of the committee. The failure of the Board of Education to produce this memorandum hampers the ability of the Open Meetings Compliance Board to render an accurate opinion in this matter."
The advance agenda item "Handling of responses that are incomplete" mentioned in the earlier post is for explanation at the 9:15AM Organizational Meeting and not the 10AM Annual Meeting.
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