This murky ruling would seem to allow a future Education Commissioner (or current Commissioner Terry Holliday, in the future) to call together groups to conduct public business in private. According to the Attorney General, it all depends on who calls the meeting. See if you can figure this one out - 'cause I can't.
This from Toni Konz at C-J:
The Kentucky Department of Education may have violated the state’s open meetings law when a committee met in private to interview candidates for an open seat on the Jefferson County Board of Education, Attorney General Jack Conway said in an opinion issued Friday.
Conway said that if the three-member committee that interviewed four women for the open school board seat was created by the Kentucky Board of Education — a public agency — then the law was violated. But if it was created by Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday, it was not.
“On the KDE website, they say that the committee was created by the state board,” said Jon Fleischaker, an attorney for The Courier-Journal. “If that is the case, they violated the law by meeting in secret and for not following the process for going into closed session.”But Kevin Brown, an attorney for the Kentucky Department of Education, has previously said that the screening process is “not an action of a public agency” because the board was created by Holliday.
“The opinion speaks for itself,” Brown said on Friday. “The commissioner’s actions were compliant with his duty under KRS 160.190.”
Brown said that the document on KDE’s website is in error and that it will be amended with correct information....
The newspaper argued that the screening committee is a public agency, because it was established by the education department, and that “all meetings of a quorum of the members of any public agency at which any public business is discussed” constitute a public meeting.
The attorney general’s opinion says that if the committee were created and controlled by the Kentucky Department of Education under the terms of the procedures document that was posted on the website, then the committee is a public agency. However, the opinion said there is no “empirical proof” to resolve that issue...
4 comments:
Richard,
Interesting. Question though as it relates to Fayette County: Was this an issue when Larry Conner left the Fayette County School Board and an appointment had to be made then? I don't remember any outcry or press coverage about it here.
In fact, while I remember reading that three people applied for and were interviewed for that open seat, I don't know who they were. Do you? One was Kirk Tinsley since he obviously got the appointment. Just curious if you knew.
By the way, heard any rumors on potential candidates for the school board elections in Fayette County?
Be very careful in allowing Terry Holliday private authority. I worked for him in North Carolina until he ordered research to provide a list of teachers' voting records. The gist of his efforts were to have prinaipals force teachers to vote certain ways in political races. Holliday brooks no disagreement. You have to watch this man. He talks a good game but he is not honest.
I haven't followed FCPS board activities any closer than the average citizen (with a couple of exceptions, of course) and have no insight on Mr Tinsley or the circumstances of his selection. And aside from Amanda Ferguson I don't know who's running for the board...although I have heard Doug Barnett's name mentioned for Tinsley's seat...and someone told me Tinsley may have somethng to answer for.
As for Holliday, I haven't seen anything that has caused me that kind of concern and I hope I don't.
I really hope Doug Barnett runs. I've known him for almost 30 years and I can say that he is a great guy. I know that he was valedictorian of our class at Garrard County High School, went to UK and graduated magna cum laude with a double major in Political Science and History and graduated from UK's law school. He was always passionate about everything he did and he never let anyone outwork him. He would be great on the school board. I'd vote for him if I lived in Fayette County.
Since you are over at EKU, you should talk to Beth over at EKU's Educational Talent Search Program if you want to know more about him. She should know him pretty well because he participated in that program in high school.
You should also check out some of the work his brother Mike does. Mike is a professor of education at Boston College. You would be impressed with him.
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