Members of a state panel investigating the so-called “pre-meetings” of Maryland’s Board of Public Works said they suspect the gatherings go beyond the social and housekeeping purposes alleged by its members.
The state’s Open Meetings Compliance Board issued a ruling this month that doesn’t definitively determine whether the meetings — alleged by BPW member and Comptroller Peter Franchot to be illegal — are subject to sunshine laws.
“While pre-meetings may consist of matters outside the scope of the act, we suspect that the opportunity to inquire into proposed agenda items of significant interests and exchanging of substantive information is often the more significant motif why pre-meetings occur,” the three-member compliance panel wrote. “We want to emphasize that when such conversations occur, the open meetings act applies and the act’s procedural requirements must be followed.”
Given the BPW’s decision to comply with the state’s open meeting act in the future, an analysis of former pre-meetings would only be an “academic exercise,” the compliance board wrote.
The open meetings panel began investigating pre-meetings in September after a reporter from the Kent County News filed a citizen’s complaint about the informal gatherings before the BPW’s regularly scheduled meetings. Franchot last year began skipping the pre-meetings, saying he believed they violated sunshine laws.
“When he stopped going originally, it was because he had concerns they did violate the open meetings act — they were substantive enough for him to be concerned,” said Franchot’s spokesman, Joseph Shapiro.
The comptroller may now resume attending the meetings on a case-by-case basis, Shapiro said.
The board’s two other members — Gov. Martin O’Malley and Treasurer Nancy Kopp — have continued to meet before the public session. The BPW oversees millions in state contracts and meets about twice each month.
Deputy Attorney General John Howard Jr. responded to the complaint on behalf of the BPW, arguing that pre-meetings are mostly social and have been limited to administrative and housekeeping matters, exempting them from open meeting requirements.
“Nonetheless, the board has directed its staff to put in place all of the procedures of the open meetings act to maximize openness and transparency in the board’s processes and to encourage public confidence in those processes,” Howard wrote.
The time and location of the pre-meetings are now printed on agendas posted on the board’s Web site, and officials said minutes would be taken and published.
Compliance board member Courtney McKeldin said she participates in similar pre-meetings in another, unrelated public service: the Baltimore City Zoning Board. In an e-mail, she declined to comment on BPW pre-meetings. “Our pre-meeting is always open to the public, and we do have people who attend some from time to time,” McKeldin wrote. “The door is always open.” [email protected]
