Secret Meeting to be held at Ft. Payne, Dekalb County Alabama due to a lack of decision making abilities of the Jackson County Commission. Special Called Meeting to occur April 7, 2010 at the Ft. Payne Mediation Center. I think the dog should abandon his "commission pony" on this one. Time to hold the pony accountable for stepping on the law and the citizen's government.If we the tax payers of Jackson County have to pay for mediation due to the incompetence of the county commissioners we deserve to see the rest of the commissioner's "circus act."
The Jackson County Commission has been moving along "rather well," considering the past "dog and pony shows," for the last couple of meetings. The meetings have been conducted in a professional manner with very few errors in format and decorum. Much improvement has been made over the past 2 months. However, the circus does continue in the courthouse.I noticed an error was evident on the agenda under the topic of "Discussion Items." In accordance with the commissions policy concerning the conduct of meetings, an item of discussion is an item brought forward by commissioners during the course of the meeting for inclusion in the meeting for a vote, for discussion items there must be an unanimous vote by the commission for discussion items to be approved. There were 4 items improperly listed on the agenda under "Discussion Items." The agenda was approved by the commission, no commissioner questioned this violation of decorum concerning the meeting.
Well (a deep subject), there is this matter of a secret meeting due to the commissioners inability to resolve a decision making problem amongst themselves, an executive session for the purpose of mediation due to the commissions failed ability to make a decision. Does this mean we still have more "Dog and Pony Show" politics and misapplication of the law? I think yes, the circus continues.
It was announced that a Special Call Meeting, Executive Session, will be conducted at the "Mediation Center in Ft Payne, Al., confusion over address, on April 7 at 1:30 PM. The County Attorney mentioned that a decision could be made at Ft Payne concerning the Engineer position after the Executive Session and the meeting was called back into regular session after the mediation session's Executive Session. A notice of the meeting is required to be posted on the County Bulletin Board in the foyer by the courthouse north entrance.
Reference the Special Call, secret, Executive Session meeting. This is a very unusual situation, to hold a County Commission Meeting in another county, in secret. The purpose is to mediate, per the court's decision. The Declaratory Judgement Motion asks the court to determine- quote, "the authority of the commission chair and members in regard to the body's conduct within its adopted rules and procedure," quote from The Daily Sentinel, Feb. 24, 2010. Judge Holt has ordered the case into mediation for resolution.
The Open Meeting's Law of the State of Alabama states in section 36-25A-7 (3) in reference to one of the reasons for an Executive Session, "...to meet or confer with a mediator or arbitrator with respect to any litigation or decision concerning matters within the jurisdiction of the governmental body involving ANOTHER party, group, or body." As stated in the request for a Declaratory Judgement, this case involves the decision making authority of the Commission Chair and the Commission as a whole as to the county commission's adopted rules and proceedures. This action involving the commissions rules and procedures does not involve "another party, group or body" outside of the county commission. In fact, it involves the commissioners themselves and their lack of decision making abilities.
The Special Called Meeting at Ft. Payne should be open to the public, mediation or not. This does not involve "pending litigation" of any other "party, group or body" as described by law. This case involves the county commission and only the county commissioners. The failure of the county commissioners in their decision making ability does not warrant the secrecy of a closed executive session with a mediator because of the commissioner's internal failures of decision making. Secrecy be damned, the citizens deserve to see their commissioners resolving their lack of decision making or failing once again.
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