Well, the county commissioners are finally getting around to some of the things they talked about most during last year’s campaign, issues like the waste-to-energy incinerator and the possible expansion of the airport. Apparently, the Carroll County Times thinks it’s about time.

And blasted them, not for delaying on these matters, but on another matter. Secrecy. The main point being that despite upcoming public hearings, if the past year is any indicator, they’ll still make up their own minds, and do it behind closed doors without much concern for public input.

The Times writes under the headline “Board Excludes Public.”

Public input and openness is something that continues to elude this board, which has, in a single year in office, raised the bar to record heights on government secrecy. Early on, the state’s Open Meetings Compliance Board found the board in violation of the law for illegally closing some meetings. Later, the board admitted that it had discussed the makeup of a redistricting committee via email exchanges, something the Compliance Board noted was not illegal, but which deprived citizens the opportunity to be a part of their government.

The board has also raised the costs associated with open records requests, and despite the county attorney advising them that redacting certain information from Public Information Act requests such as addresses and emails was likely illegal, Commissioner Richard Rothschild said it didn’t matter, and if someone had a problem with the practice they should file a lawsuit.

How’s that for open government? You don’t like what we’re doing, sue us.

The Times continues:

If the board’s pattern holds, public input will mean little, decisions about these and other projects will be made in secret, either behind closed doors or via secret email exchanges, and then the board will announce what it intends to do. In most cases, the decisions likely will have been made far prior to any public meetings, and the meetings will be for nothing more than show, or to fulfill in the most minimal way possible their legal obligations.

This board has demonstrated repeatedly that it does not want public input. It has demonstrated that it does not want to be held accountable, and that it does not want to provide the public with records and documents that by law belong to the people. In that environment, residents should not get their hopes up too much about the value of their input during these planned meetings on important issues.

Of course, a lot of people don’t like the Carroll County Times, but with no organized opposition, the commissioners seem to assume they can do whatever they want. That’s not how it’s supposed to work, and the Carroll County Times looks determined not to let it happen.

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