After the Parents' Coalition filed an Open Meetings Act complaint with the Maryland Open Meetings Act Compliance Board the Montgomery County Board of Education (BOE) finally made public the memorandum from Board President Phil Kauffman that established the credit card committee.
Note that the BOE did not produce this memorandum in their initial response to the Open Meetings Act Compliance Board.
The BOE did not produce this memorandum until July 16th, five days after the Parents' Coalition alerted the Open Meetings Act Compliance Board to its existence.
The memorandum, shown below in SCRIBD, from BOE President Phil Kauffman states that the backroom, no public allowed credit card committee was initially established just because Mr. Kauffman decided it was time to review the policy.
The memorandum makes no mention of the fact that members of the Parents' Coalition had picked up over 300 pages of Board member credit card bills and expense reports just two days earlier on April 23, 2014.
The memorandum makes no mention of the fact that members of the Parents' Coalition had picked up over 300 pages of Board member credit card bills and expense reports just two days earlier on April 23, 2014.
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From: KMKoger@Venable.com
To: opengov@oag.state.md.us; AMacNeille@oag.state.md.us
CC: -------SMWilliams@Venable.com; KMKoger@Venable.com
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 10:45:44 -0400
Subject: RE: Open Meetings Act Complaint (MCPS) - response to Venable LLP
Ms. MacNeille:
Attached please find a copy of the April 25, 2014 Memorandum referenced by Ms. Wilson in her July 11, 2014 letter. As noted in the Memorandum, Board of Education President Philip Kauffman created the ad hoc committee to review the processes and guidelines relating to Board of Education expenditures as set forth in the Board of Education’s Handbook. In reviewing such processes and guidelines, the ad hoc committee is carrying out an administrative function and is not developing new policies for Board of Education expenditures as suggested by Ms. Wilson. As noted in my letter of July 3, 2014, the Open Meetings Act also did not apply to the gathering of the ad hoc committee because such gathering did not involve a quorum of the Board of Education and the ad hoc committee is not a public body that is subject to the Open Meetings Act. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions.
Kristin M. Koger, Esq. | Venable LLP
t 301.217.5643 | f 301.217.5617
One Church Street, Fifth Floor, Rockville, MD 20850
Which raises the question: if there's already a Fiscal Management Committee, why do you need "ad hoc" reviewers? So you can avoid having public meeting of the FMC?
ReplyDeleteRemember: the Act must be interpreted to frustrate all attempts at evasion.