So what’s going down behind closed doors?

Star Beacon

June 29, 2008 12:05 am

— Do you ever wonder when you read public officials held an executive session, just what the heck are they up to?
I do. Frankly, I wonder if they are trying to get away with something.
Early in my journalistic career, there could be a whole year with no executive sessions. Employee negotiations were sometimes open to the public!
Today, executive sessions are an everyday event. The state’s Sunshine Law is interpreted extremely liberally these days.
In theory, public bodies in Ohio must meet in open session, except for specific instances, like pending litigation, personnel and land acquisition. Also, all final legislation must pass in open meetings.
Well, if you stretch it enough, these reasons can be used for virtually any closed meeting.
Look no further than when Conneaut City Council met in secret to discuss problems it was having with the School Board over tax abatements. Now the board pledged it would not file a lawsuit against the city over the problems. Yet council still met in private, citing pending litigation. Huh?
If you’ve looked at Star Beacon Web forums, you know there’s a lot of speculation about what Conneaut council is doing with the East Conneaut Industrial Park.
Rumors abound that council is willing to sell property there for pennies on the dollar to some unnamed source. For weeks it was also reported Joseph Mayernick, executive director of Growth Partnership for Ashtabula County, was involved. There are a lot of people on the forums who just don’t trust Mayernick.
Earlier this month, council met in executive session with, among others, Mayernick, to discuss a wind turbine farm.
Now you might say the executive session is fine because it is dealing with land acquisition, right? Legally maybe, but when you stop to think about it, wouldn’t it be more beneficial for the city to hold this meeting in public under normal circumstances?
Closed meetings for land acquisition used to mean the government entity wants to buy land and is worried that discussing the venture in public would drive the price up.
But in this case, it is the city selling the property. So if these meetings were open and the public knew what prices were being discussed, maybe someone else would read about it, offer more money for the land and make an even better deal for the community.
Under normal circumstances, what advantage is there for the city to have these meetings closed?
The 159 acres would be sold to an undisclosed client. After a recent work session, which was closed, our reporter asked Council President James Jones what was going on. Jones hemmed and hawed before referring questions to interim City Manager Edward Somppi, while another councilman said he was anxious to get to a bar. Somppi, to his credit, is trying to alleviate fears and pledges an open meeting to discuss these concerns. But that is still in the future.
On Monday, Councilman Tony Julio cautioned residents not to rely on rumors for information. Yet Julio never offered any information to quell rumors.
We still don’t have any idea about the asking price of the land. Someone asked how much employment this project would generate. No answer. No wonder people are suspicious. A Planning Commission member had to ask if his board could be involved in the process!
I am all for wind turbines. This may be a great project. But I don’t blame people for being suspicious.
It is like Conneaut School Board saying it wants the people to have a hand in choosing a new school superintendent. Sure, after the board has already met in executive sessions.
What is wrong with having all of the decision-making done in public? Justifying closed sessions to choose a superintendent comes under the excuse that it is personnel. Except the candidates are not personnel, not yet at least.
Would it be so terrible to advertise for a superintendent, stating beforehand that everything would be done in public?
Chardon schools have done this before. Don’t let the public think it has a hand in picking the person, actually have the public take part.
The reason Conneaut is seeking a new superintendent is because Mary Zappitelli has resigned to take the same job in Geneva.
I don’t blame Zappitelli for leaving. It’s more money in a school system where residents probably want to invest in education more.
During our process to track down Zappitelli’s salary, a reporter approached Geneva board member Ford Behm.
Behm replied there are various factors in deciding an administrators. “We don’t have a typical contract and we don’t disclose our administrators’ salaries...” he said.
Now to be fair to Geneva, other school officials worked to provide us with this information. But I find it very, very scary that a person sits on Geneva’s school board who thinks salaries of top administrators are not disclosed. There is no doubt, this is public record. Is Behm for real?
No wonder executive sessions are so common.
So what do we need to do? We need to elect people who pledge to be open and honest. Not just play lip service, but actually mean it. Maybe some closed sessions are necessary. Some are not.
Staying in the sunshine would go a long way toward restoring confidence in our elected officials.
Lebzelter is special sections editor. E-mail him at bobleb@starbeacon.com. Take the poll on this issue under “opinion” at www.starbeacon.com.

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