Washington Local Schools officials’ plans to meet behind closed doors this week runs afoul of state transparency laws, according to an agency that represents public school boards across Ohio and a First Amendment attorney for The Blade, who agreed the meeting agenda fails to provide adequate information as required.
When asked Monday about its plans, school district officials amended their meeting notice twice — still without adequate information, according to open government experts.
School board members last week announced a special meeting on Wednesday, with the intention to go into executive session to “discuss staffing of the district,” according to a meeting agenda.
School board president Mark Hughes told The Blade on Monday that the board will be looking at various concerns such as budgeting. He said the “staffing component is to make sure our staffing aligns.”
But Ohio’s Sunshine Laws — intended to ensure public bodies conduct public business in a transparent fashion — allow elected boards like schools boards to enter executive session only to discuss a narrow range of matters, like considering the appointment, employment, dismissal, promotion, demotion, or compensation of a public employee or official, or the investigation of charges or complaints against a public employee.
The Blade on Monday read to a list of the exemptions outlined by state law to Mr. Hughes, who stated that what the board plans to discuss Wednesday did not fall under those exemptions.
A second notice for Wednesday’s meeting — released by Washington Local officials on Monday afternoon — listed 20 separate topics that might be discussed in executive session, including the appointment and dismissal of a public employee, considering the purchase of property, and to reviewing negotiations with a bargaining unit. But it did not cite a specific reason for the meeting, other than plans for an executive session, which is a violation of Ohio’s Sunshine Laws.
Later in the day, officials amended the notice again to say personnel matters and staffing of the district would be discussed. Staffing also is not an exempted discussion.
Experts who deal with public meetings laws took issue with the board’s actions.
“Ohio public-meetings law is founded on a simple, inarguable democratic premise: the people are entitled to know when, where, and why their elected officials are meeting, and are entitled also to attend and listen to those meetings, with limited exceptions. Ohio courts have made clear that this kind of calculated flouting of these simple principles violates the letter of the law and the democratic spirit that animates it,” said Fritz Byers, a Toledo-based attorney and expert in government transparency and First Amendment issues who represents The Blade’s newsroom.
Ohio School Board Association Senior Staff Attorney Van Keating said public offices also are required to have specific names and/or positions listed when going into executive session for personnel reasons. Specifications of employment are public record.
“The way staffing usually works, there’s this part that allows them to talk about the hiring and firing of employees. It generally means that you have a specific employee or position [at hand],” he said.
Monica Nieporte, president and executive director at Ohio News Media Association, said the board may be in violation of state law if it proceeds.
An attorney for Washington Local would not comment Monday when reached by The Blade. Superintendent Susan Hayward has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
The Ohio Attorney General each year publishes a Sunshine Laws guide. The 2019 guide states it’s improper to reiterate “the laundry list” of possible exemptions without specifying in a motion which of those purposes will be discussed, specifically.
The guide refers to a 2001 state Supreme Court case when the court found the Village of Cardington erred multiple times regarding open government laws, including when it “merely reiterated the laundry list of possible [executive session exemptions] without specifying which of those purposes would be discussed in executive session.”
Also on Monday, Washington Local officials sent out a second meeting notice for a special meeting Thursday. That meeting notice does not indicate it will go into executive session to consider “the investigation of charges or complaints against a public employee, official, licensee, or student.” The agenda seemed to suggest both the “investigations of charges or complaints against a public employee, official, licensee, or student” and “personnel matters” would be discussed openly.
Mr. Hughes did not respond to subsequent requests for comment.
The school board meets at the district’s administration building, 3505 W. Lincolnshire Blvd., Toledo. The Wednesday meeting is slated to start at 5 p.m., while the Thursday meeting is slated for 6 p.m.
First Published May 7, 2019, 12:12 a.m.
