At a recent Jefferson County School Board meeting it was suggested that the Board have meetings that are not open to the public. In a startling accounting the notion that too many voices joining the conversation may cloud discussions.
The School Board attorney was asked to explore ways that these secret meeting may happen, noting that the Gadsden County School Board holds such closed meetings.
Closed meetings are entirely appropriate for some things. Children who are expelled from school may have personal problems that the public does not need to know for example. Union negations and a very few other specific legal issues have exceptions to the rule of sunshine and transparency. However, any transition from a charter school to the public domain is certainly the business of the Jefferson County taxpayer. It's our money.
Back in the 1950 the infamous Pork Chop Gang held secret meeting to finagle their personal political ends. This was wrong headed then and it's wrong headed now. This sounds like hushed conversations at unknown times, behind locked doors with no public notice. Remember it's our money.
It is exactly this sort of nefarious notion that prompted laws against secret meetings about things financed by public money. I feel certain that the School Board attorney can educate the Board about the appropriateness of this request. If the Gadsden County School Board is in fact meeting in secret, I would think that would be quite interesting to the State Attorney.
The Florida Attorney General (AGO71-37) says. "The right of the public to be present and to be heard during all phases of enactments by boards and commissions is a source of strength in our country. During past years tendencies toward secrecy in public affairs have been the subject of extensive criticism. Terms such as managed news, secret meetings, closed records, executive sessions, and study sessions have become synonymous with "hanky panky" in the minds of public-spirited citizens. One purpose of the Sunshine Law was to maintain the faith of the public in governmental agencies. Regardless of their good intentions, these specified boards and commissions, through devious ways, should not be allowed to deprive the public of this inalienable right to be present and to be heard at all deliberations wherein decisions affecting the public are being made."
Someone in the public might actually have good ideas. And remember it is our money.
Merry Ann Frisby