School Board Mtg Update
The school board meeting was surreal. The board moved quickly down a list of a dozen or so items. Several of us chose to wait in the anteroom so as not to disturb the meeting. About 40 minutes after the meeting had been called to order a neighbor came out and said "we're on deck". We looked at each other and walked into the room in time to hear the president ask if there were any members of the audience who wished to speak "for the good of the cause". We heard her say that we would need to limit our comments to 3 minutes each (I had practiced my comments and was confident I could get my points across in 4 minutes and Dorothy Miller had reassured me that I would be fine). As we walked toward the podium, (me with my stack of prepared remarks ready to be handed out to the board so they could follow along), the president said, "hearing no one I pronounce the meeting closed", and her gavel pounded to the table with a thud. Puzzled by this breach of etiquette, our attorney. Mr. Greg Cafouros, approached the podium and introduced himself as counsel for Historic Traders Point Association and asked if we could speak. President Eilers said that it would not be legal for the meeting to proceed after it had been closed. An audience of puzzled spectators and neighbors ambled out of the room. A number of us remained, a bit stunned, and expressed our dismay to each other. I passed out to board members, and anyone else with an open hand, copies of my prepared remarks regarding the History of Traders Point, but it was over, for now. And one of my neighbors looked at me with a serious face and said, "this is war".
posted by Ross Reller at 7:28 AM
1 Comments:
It would be interesting, if any among our residents is an attorney, to know what citation exists to make it illegal for the meeting's presiding official to allow further discussion after she dropped the gavel. In my own experience of being agency staff to one of the state's environmental boards, the board chairman has discretion and uses it to encourage openness of the public meeting. There have been corrections made such as, "...let the record reflect that I misspoke..." and then the meeting or hearing continues. The point of a public meeting is inclusion not exclusion such as was the case Thursday night at the school board meeting.
Prior to the HTP representatives entering the board room, the president had given a description of the Moore-86th land issue that was discussed at the Feb 24th meeting and her promise to Dorothy Miller to advise us when the issue would next be on the school board's meeting agenda. It seems the president's reasoning for not allowing discussion at last night's meeting, aside from her stance of illegality, was that it would not be fair to those who weren't at the meeting due to thinking there was no agenda item for discussing the possible land purchase.
Of course, that leaves the question of why is there opportunity provided on the agenda for "patrons" to speak to the board.
Post a Comment
<< Home