Friday, May 12, 2023

***Breaking*** Board of Education Cited for Violating 4 Sections of MD Open Meetings Act: Board of Ed Hid in Closed Session and Did Not Disclose Discussions on Multiple Topics. @mocoboe @mcps

The Maryland Open Meetings Compliance Board has cited the Montgomery County Board of Education for violating the Maryland Open Meetings Act by failing to disclose what they were discussing in a Closed Session.

Violating the Maryland Open Meetings Act is not a sign of an open and transparent public body. It's not the first time they have been cited and it won't be the last as the Board of Education has consistently shown they have no intention of abiding by the Maryland Open Meetings Act. 

From the Opinion:

...The Complainants assert that the resolution “contains only uninformative boilerplate language” and therefore violates the Act. We agree that the required disclosures are missing necessary details...

 

...Here, the Board of Education invoked four exceptions under § 3-305(b) that required disclosures: the personnel matters exception of § 3-305(b)(1), the collective bargaining exception of § 3-305(b)(9), and the legal advice and litigation exceptions of §3- 305(b)(7) and (8).3 Each disclosure is lacking in some respect...

 ...Merely restating the language of the exception itself was insufficient and a violation of the Act...


The following Maryland Open Meetings Act Opinion was issued in response to a Complaint filed by Janis Zink Sartucci on behalf of the Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, MD. 

  

2 comments:

  1. "This opinion is subject to the acknowledgement and announcement requirements of § 3-211."

    I won't hold my breath waiting for that to happen.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I tried to tell about this months ago. Hiding details. People said no. Etc...Basically bullying me.

    ReplyDelete

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