More Secrecy?

The THURSDAY, April 2nd Special Called Meeting of the Camden County Board of Commissioners might be  yet another effort by our County government to deny Transparency to constituent/taxpayers. What they’re doing is legal, but it could very well be a continuation of bad policy.

O.C.G.A. 50-14-3(b)(4) is a Georgia Law that allows our County elected officials to conduct County business secretly in CLOSED SESSIONS. It’s STILL not obvious to some elected officials and their staff that they need citizen input, citizen experience, and citizen wisdom in the decision process more than ever!

O.C.G.A. 50-14-3(b)(4):

“Subject to compliance with the other provisions of this chapter, executive sessions shall be permitted for:  Portions of meetings during which that portion of a record made exempt from public inspection or disclosure pursuant to Article 4 of Chapter 18 of this title is to be considered by an agency and there are no reasonable means by which the agency (County Commission) can consider the record without disclosing the exempt portions if the meeting were not closed;”

We’re told in the posted AGENDA that the discussion is “Information Technology related”. It could be they have figured out they need better technology security, and if needed, that is a good move. They certainly should keep a low profile on the specifics of what system they install. But is that what the meeting is about? Could they be discussing a leak that has cost the county a ton of money? Considering that it’s increasingly evident over the years that various Commissioners have tended to hide their failures (think about the condition many of our parks deteriorated to before they came up with the half-baked and under-funded plan for their recovery), it is possible we are not hearing the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

And could the Special Called Meeting have been scheduled so a Commissioner can make a last minute Agenda addition to avoid public scrutiny or comments????

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