Winder holds illegal budget meetings

After getting wind of the ongoing meetings after they were nearly over, a Barrow Journal reporter drove to the Winder Community Center on Tuesday afternoon and found assembled around a conference table center Mayor Chip Thompson, finance director Leslie Henderson, two department managers, and four of the six members of the Winder City Council – David Maynard, Ridley Parrish, Sonny Morris and Bob Dixon – which constituted a quorum.

The four councilmen in recent weeks have publicly displayed an interest in more closely monitoring the operation of the city government, asking detailed questions at council meetings and actually reining in the administration’s spending authority on downtown improvement projects. And each of them spoke positively Tuesday afternoon about their increased involvement in the budget process.

But neither they, nor the administration, properly notified the public about the two all-day sessions of budget meetings.

‘MORE RIGOROUS’ PUBLIC NOTICE REQUIRED
Georgia law requires even more “rigorous” public notification for meetings held outside the regular meeting schedule of a public body, according to the Georgia Attorney General’s Office.

“Meetings that are not held at the regularly posted time and place require more rigorous notice procedures,“ states a citizen’s guide to open government published in 2008 by the office of Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker.

“Agencies must give ‘due notice’ of all such special or emergency meetings held at a time or place other than at the time and place prescribed for regular meetings.”

The guide states that that agencies “must” give due notice of all special meetings and that that notice must include the following: “Posting at least 24 hours in advance, at the regular meeting place and oral notification to the newspaper which serves as the legal organ for the county. In counties where the legal organ is published less than four times a week, due notice also requires that notice be given to any local media outlets that make a written request to be so notified.”

On May 26, 2009, the Journal submitted a written request for notification of all city council meetings. However, the only public notice provided about Monday’s and Tuesday’s meetings was an announcement taped to each of the two front doors of the community center. The glare of the afternoon sun made the notices barely visible from the street.

Winder’s city staff also did not post on the city’s web site any notice of the meetings or place the meetings on the online calendar.

According to the city’s web site, the budget will be given to the full council on May 17 and a public input session will be at 5 p.m. the same day. Like last year, that meeting will be only with the finance director. But it will be followed by an official city council budget hearing 10 days later on May 27 at 5 p.m.

There are state penalties for non-compliance with the Open Meetings Law.

The attorney general’s guide states that “anyone who ‘knowingly and willlfully’ conducts or participates in a meeting without complying with every part of the Law is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not in excess of $500.

“Additionally, public officials who participate in closed meetings in violation of the Law can be subject to recall.”