If You Ask Me / By Martha Knight

A nearby township board of supervisors filled a vacancy on the board. The newly appointed chap was quoted in a news story as saying he had not yet had a chance to sit down with the other two supervisors and talk over township business and issues, but he looked forward to doing that soon.

Might I suggest that this be done at a public meeting of the township board of supervisors?

That would have the advantage of being lawful. Because otherwise, sitting or standing, talking on the phone or texting, discussion of township business even by two supervisors skirts the law.

A public agency is supposed to meet in public. We, the people, are entitled to witness (and weigh in on) not only the final decisions, when the group votes on various matters, but also the deliberative process—all that went into reaching the decision, from when the matter was proposed to when reports were presented on various possibilities to when the decision was reached in the form of a vote on a motion.

There are some sensible exceptions, largely having to do with due process and fairness to employees, and avoidance of labor problems and of legal quagmires. And there are some almost routine abuses of the sensible exceptions in the open government laws.

In township matters it is very easy to fall into violations, almost chronic ones, of open government laws. This is because when a quorum of the public body is present, anywhere, and discusses matters which are within its sphere of responsibility and control, it is in violation of the open government requirements—and a quorum of a township board of supervisors is two.

Sure, it sounds like a practical and natural way to do things—for one of those officials to run into another one, at a clambake or in the store or after church (or in some townships, I guess it could be at a family gathering!). And we can all imagine how natural it would seem for one to say to the other, “Say, I’ve been thinking, instead of using the crew to do that ditch cleaning and letting them rack up overtime, why don’t we contract with Bigger Digger?” And the other would say, “Okay, why don’t you go ahead and call them, and have them finish up the ditch cleaning on Swallow Hollow and Timbuck Two. We can vote on it next month.”

When that sort of thing happens, probably the protagonists believe they are being efficient and avoiding delays. Township boards tend to hold their public meetings once a month, on a regular schedule. But sometimes they need to decide something between meetings!

Usually, though, that can be avoided with some care and foresight, and we do hope our elected officials are capable of that. The “for instance” I used is scarcely an emergency matter, is it? The matter of which way is the better, for that township, to handle its ditch clearing, could have been raised at a public meeting before those two supervisors had their unplanned conversation.

Oh well, no harm was done, I hear some say. They wanted to save the township, and the taxpayers, some money and get the ditches cleaned sooner. Yep, maybe so. But nearly always that can be done with some careful foresight. When there is a genuine need to act before the next regular public meeting, the board can hold a special public meeting. It just takes a notice in the paper, easily, quickly and cheaply done.

Notice that when those two well-intentioned supervisors made their quick decision in their impromptu encounter, they were shutting the third supervisor, elected by the same process they were, out of it. If the discussion were taking place in a public meeting, he’d have an opportunity to make suggestions, or help with the math (will it really save money?) or suggest a different contractor.

At a meeting there would be some opportunity for members of the public to be heard on the matter. “I can clean the ditch along my road, if you’d like.”

•    •    •

Some bodies that serve the public probably do not get the media attention they deserve. The libraries in our service area (there are at least two) used to receive more press attention than they do now. I remember attending our library board meetings as regularly as I would attend the school board and borough council meetings, and the hospital board meetings too. It has been difficult to fit those into my schedule, for quite a while, but I should figure out a way.

Attend hospital board meetings? I was thinking about Port Allegany Community Hospital! Its board meetings were public, you bet. And there was an annual meeting open to the membership. That was when the officers and directors were elected, and annual reports were presented, and so on.

The membership consisted of the adult residents of the service area! Sometimes there was quite a crowd.

So how does that work with Cole Memorial? Well, it’s a private corporation. It is not a community hospital in the usual sense. And its meetings are not “open.”

There are many who believe, and occasional court rulings that seem to support the idea, that agencies that receive significant public or government funding should operate in a manner that is open to the public.

Public authorities, for sure. Entities that seek and receive government funding (grants, reimbursements), absolutely. They should be open and accountable to the public. Press releases and newsletters help some, but they tend to be self-serving more than frank, and they do not add up to transparent operating.

“But I can’t speak freely when the press and public are present!” My response to that is, “So stay out of public life! Don’t seek or accept public office! Don’t sign on for public service on boards or commissions or authorities. We call it public office, public service, because it is NOT private!”

Peace.