Truth, justice and the American way

I'm feeling like I did something important today. In the grand scheme of things, all I did was cause a headache for some people who were going to circumvent the Ohio Open Meetings Act. But I still feel like I did something that mattered. I'll paste my story since it's not on our Web site quite yet.

BREAKOUT:
ON THE WEB
To read about the Ohio Sunshine Laws, go to http://www.ag.state.oh.us/online_publications/2004_yellow_book.pdf. Find valid reasons for executive sessions under the Open Meetings Act in “Seven Different Types of Executive Sessions.”

Headline: CIC members decline discussion in open meeting

By DAVID TRINKO
dtrinko@limanews.com
419-993-2098

OTTAWA — Board members for the Putnam County Community Improvement Corp. came to the commissioners’ office to chat Wednesday.
They weren’t so eager to have the public hear what they had to say, though.
“If we can’t keep it out of the newspaper, I’ll say we need to cancel the meeting,” CIC President Stan Schneck said.
Schneck, Edna Michel and Jim Russell walked out of a scheduled meeting Wednesday after the commissioners declined to go into executive session to discuss the county’s issues with the CIC, which it dropped as the county’s economic coordinator last summer.
Executive sessions legally exclude the public from proceedings, but the situation must meet one of seven specific standards. The Public Records Act and found in Attorney General Jim Petro’s “An Ohio Sunshine Laws Update 2004 Edition” describes its proper use.
The CIC has two pending lawsuits against the county commissioners, both scheduled for their first court appearances in early March.
In the past month, the commissioners met to discuss CIC-related topics eight different times with members of the business community or the CIC itself, according to the commissioners’ meeting calendar. They entered into executive session four times, using the topic “conference with attorney for public body to discuss pending or imminent court action.”
In each of those executive sessions, the commissioners’ attorney, Prosecutor Gary Lammers, joined the group in executive session. Lammers was out of the county Wednesday.
“We’d need Gary to discuss pending or imminent lawsuits,” Commissioner Vincent Schroeder said. “That doesn’t mean we can’t still speak like we’ve been doing though.”
Schneck said he worried about derailing the discussion by conducting it in an open meeting.
“I’m not prepared to discuss anything then,” he said. “I don’t think we’re to the point I want it in the newspapers. Until we work out some things, it’s all just discussion.”
The penalty for an illegal executive session includes invalidating the decisions made in a session or even removal of an officeholder.
“If you read through these, there’s nothing that really applies with negotiations with an organization outside of this office,” Schroeder said.
Commissioner Tom Price added, “We just don’t want to do anything wrong.”
Discussions between the county government and the CIC appear to be moving along well.
During a meeting Tuesday night, CIC Director Martin Kuhlman and new Putnam County Economic Development Coordinator Lee Schroeder expressed optimism they could find “middle ground” in developing a new standard form for enterprise zone agreements. Leipsic officials voiced concerns about some of the language.
Schneck expressed disappointment while commending the recent steps toward resolving the sides’ differences.
“We made so many gigantic steps forward,” Schneck said. “This is going to cause us to go backwards. Time is of an essence. Because of this glitch, it’s delaying things.”