06/18/2008: "Council Moves To Formalize Monday Meetings"

The County Council allowed formal Public Access for the first time at a Monday meeting, but there was no public in attendance to take advantage of it.

Calling it a “work in progress”, the council is moving slowly toward formally removing some of the differences between their Monday meetings and their Tuesday meetings.

The council has been repeatedly questioned by some members of the media on confused messages as to what the purpose of the Monday Council meetings are, and what may or may not take place at the meetings. The Council has responded by formally stating they will now place public access time on the Monday agenda. They have also put the public and the press on notice that they will be taking some limited action at the Monday meetings.

The question now is, how effective will they be in informing the public -by use of the agenda- as to what actions may or may not take place at a Monday meeting. Because the mere act of discussion has been legally defined as an action, it is unlikely the Council will be able to restrain themselves from bringing up subjects for in depth discussion as it occurs to them, as opposed to putting the item on the agenda for future action (i.e. “discussion”) at the next meeting.

While it may seem too restrictive to define discussion as an action, it is discussion that can -and should- lead to a formal action, such as consent or a formal vote; and the law is clear that the public is to be given notice when a subject is to be discussed.