This article was written in 2023. However, little has changed in 2024 except that our local town government has MORE CLOSED MEETINGS THAN EVER. At our last town meeting they announced that they had conducted two closed meetings on different days in the last week. In a town of 650 people and 11 employees, how many personnel and legal issues can they have?

Ever since citizens have been more involved in local, state and national government, there has been a disturbing trend in government meetings.

It's called the closed session, closed work session, or closed meeting. It's when public entities decide to meet about public business out of the prying eyes of their constituents. And it seems to be happening more often than ever before.

In Maryland, we have the "Open Meetings Act." Here is a description of the reason and definition of this act from the Maryland Attorney General's web site:

Maryland's Open Meetings Act is a statute that requires many State and local public bodies to hold their meetings in public, to give the public adequate notice of those meetings, and to allow the public to inspect meetings minutes. The Act permits public bodies to discuss some topics confidentially. The Act's goals are to increase the public's faith in government, ensure the accountability of government to the public, and enhance the public's ability to participate effectively in our democracy. (Emphasis added by writer)

This web page defines how open meetings should be advertised and conducted. It offers citizens a spot to make complaints when they think their local governments have violated this act. While there is a provision for closed meetings, the State Act makes it clear that closed meetings should be the exception not the rule. The fifteen exceptions stated below are listed in the handbook provided by the States Attorney General's office.

Public bodies must construe the fifteen exceptions “strictly . . . in favor of open
meetings.” § 3-305(a). Public bodies should apply the exceptions in light of the Act’s stated
policy that public bodies’ meetings are to be open “except in special and appropriate
circumstances.” See § 3-102(c). As noted below, three exceptions—the procurement,
public security, and cybersecurity exceptions—may only be invoked after the public body
finds that a public discussion of the matter would cause certain types of harm.

Here is the part of the Public Meetings Act Manual covering "exceptions."

omaChapter4.pdf (marylandattorneygeneral.gov)

And yet, though this exists, it seems that local and state governments have found a way to either ignore or bend the provisions of this act to suit their purposes.

As example of how public officials can blatantly violate rules, let's take a look at Oxford, a town of 650 residents on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Since November of 2022, the Commissioners, at the request of the Town Manager, held closed meetings on 11/15/2022, 1/24/2023, 05/23/2023, and 07/25/2023. The reasons given by the Town Manager in every instance were either "to discuss a personnel issue" or to "seek legal advice." It certainly is not coincidental that several of these dates aligned with the sudden "retirement" by the Town's popular Chief of Police of over thirty years. UPDATE: This trend has continued through the end of 2023 into 2024. Currently, we have seen the town commissioners conduct closed meetings two to three times a MONTH.

What is also strange about these requests for a "closed meeting" is they were not executed according to the Act.

The Act demands that the request for a closed meeting be made by the "presiding officer" in an open meeting and the reason for the closed meeting must be stated. In the open session, the presiding officer must “make a written statement of the reason for closing the meeting.” § 3-305(d). In that statement, often called a “closing statement,” the presiding officer must additionally disclose the “topics to be discussed” and the statutory exception relied upon as authority for closing the meeting.

Also, the presiding officer must conduct a recorded vote—a vote for which each
member’s vote is specified—on a motion to close the meeting to the public. § 3-305(d)(1).
A member of the public may note an objection to the closing. Once the motion has passed, that subject, and only that subject, may be discussed in the closed meeting.

As far as this writer can determine, none of this has been regularly done on any of these requests.

The public may see the minutes of these meetings:

Public bodies must keep a copy of the minutes and any tape recording of the session
for at least five years, must post them online “[t]o the extent practicable,” and must make
them “open to public inspection during ordinary business hours.” § 3-306(e), (d).

Did the Commissioners get sloppy or did they think that no one would notice that they don't follow proper protocols? After all, it is a small town and many citizens of a small town are not liable to know the process for calling for a closed meeting. And, the smaller the town, the more the people in charge think they can pull these unethical shenanigans.

It could be that some of the Commissioners don't know the rules. However, the President of the Oxford Commissioners has made it clear to Committees that any email or discussion between the members outside the meeting would be a violation of "the open meetings act." He even asked some participants if they had been "trained in the Open Meetings Act." Was he just testing the waters to see if he had to follow the rules? Perhaps.

It's much deeper than that. The "public servants" and the Town Office are comfortable keeping constituents ignorant about the business and decisions of the town and how they are made. They are using closed meetings as a way to continue doing what they want, when they want without the "consent of the governed." They collude with certain employees to obfuscate when and why decisions have been made.

This is not the only way they hide information. The people who ask simple questions of the town often have to file a Public Information Act requests and then wait for weeks or sometimes months to get a response, if they get one at all.

This President of the Commissioners was a member of a commission who unilaterally appointed a losing candidate in the Commissioner's race to a vacant Commissioner's seat without so much as a request for nominations or applications from the citizens of the town. And, they did it before the swore in the actual winner.

This is a group who was offended when people spoke out against some of their decisions. They thought they were in their own little kingdom. They are a group who is not fond of public input.

Luckily, change is coming. There is one elected official who speaks out against this disregard for the public. And, many people in town are waking up. They are demanding transparency and accountability. Currently, we have an election to replace the appointed commissioner. We hope that the newly elected commissioner will fight hard to eliminate the constant closed meetings and support sharing information with the public and involving them in decisions.

We have to stop this trend toward hiding town business from the people who support it with tax dollars that has been going on for over a decade in our town.

Here's the thing. This is one little town on Maryland's Eastern Shore. How many other towns, cities, counties across the State are ignoring the Open Meetings Act? How many county and state elected boards hold closed meetings every single month?

This leads to too many opportunities for unethical and even illegal actions by these public officials. It leads to duly elected officials being bullied into silence and inaction by other officials and lawyers. It leads to abuses of the trust of the taxpayers. It needs to stop.

We, the citizens of our towns, our counties, this state, have been lazy. We've ignored the actions of these tyrannical public officials because it was just easier to ignore it and hope that someone else would handle it.

That time has come and gone. Go to this link and educate yourself about the Open Meetings Act in Maryland. You might be surprised about how much the act is being ignored.

https://www.marylandattorneygeneral.gov/Pages/OpenGov/omamanual.aspx

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