It?s great that Baltimore County Council members want to build “camaraderie” in their off-hours by eating together. But should taxpayers fund it?
An Examiner report shows the council billed eight dinners to taxpayers since 2005 for an average of $240 a pop.
While not a major amount of money, the existence of the dinners raises two questions.
First, if dinners are purely “social” as some members claim, what business do council members have billing those of us who pay their salaries for personal enjoyment? Do the rest of us get to go out to dinner on the government?
Second, if business does come up, as some admit, why don?t members notify the public of the whereabouts of the meetings and minutes of the discussion? Maybe their hands were too greasy to hold a pen?
Any time a government body meets with enough members for a quorum to discuss policy, law requires them to provide adequate notice about the time and location of the meeting and to release minutes.
At the “social” meeting at Paolo?s Ristorante in Towson Monday, regulating pit bulls and questions about an amendment to pension changes came up ? issues that may have been of public interest. Whether or not they were is not for members of the council to decide, however. If it?s business, the public needs to hear about it. What if sensitive zoning issues came up over frisee? Or what if the idea to change the pension system ? a major issue with many sides ? originated at Paolo?s? Who would have known about it?
The Examiner reporter who covered the dinner was the only journalist at the “meeting.” For everyone?s sake, council members should brown-bag their dinners and refrain from discussing council business unless the public has been given ample notice. Doing so would avoid both the perception and reality of waste and secrecy.
Any other county councils with similar practices should drop them. Now.
