Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 1, 1990 TAG: 9004280370
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MARGARET CAMLIN NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And few things drive reporters crazier than executive sessions - a euphemism for a closed meeting of public officials.
Executive sessions are a time when reporters chat with other hangers-on, watch the clock and wait, wait, wait - sometimes for hours.
As a reporter who covers several school boards in the New River Valley, it's interesting to note the different approaches each board takes to closed meetings.
Take the Pulaski County School Board, for instance. It has held only two closed sessions since August, both to discuss personnel changes.
In contrast, the Montgomery County School Board has held at least eight closed sessions since January. And Radford's School Board has an executive session at nearly every monthly meeting.
We reporters, curious by nature and training, do understand there can be justifiable reasons for a closed meeting, as the law allows.
In Montgomery County, there are two lawsuits pending against the School Board, and the law allows closed meetings to discuss actual or probable litigation.
And there are plans to build two new elementary schools in the county. Discussions about acquiring property for public use legally can be private to guard against an escalation in land prices.
But a common misunderstanding among local officials is that their doors must close when they want to talk about personnel, real estate and legal matters, including lawsuits.
The fact is, the law does not require governing bodies to conduct closed meetings for any reason. But they can if they want to for one or more of 17 reasons specified in the Freedom of Information Act.
The Pulaski County School Board could have closed the doors at meetings many times over the past several months, but chose not to.
For instance, when the board voted to lay off 12 teachers April 12, it did so - names and all - in the full light of day, with two reporters, a teacher and staffers watching.
And when several principals and assistant principals were to be transferred to different schools and an assistant superintendent was to resign, the changes were all on the public agenda issued before the meeting.
Nevertheless, the Pulaski board did pull in the reins recently after the name of a student being expelled was revealed. The board has since made clear such information will be kept confidential.
It seems the shift toward greater openness has a lot to do with Superintendent James Burns, who came to Virginia last July from Indian River County, Fla.
His 10 years as a superintendent in Florida clearly has had an influence. Florida has about the most liberal sunshine laws in the nation.
In the sunshine state, neither lawsuits nor real-estate matters nor personnel actions - unless they are disciplinary - can be discussed in closed meetings of government bodies.
Only disciplinary action, criminal matters and final collective bargaining negotiations can be behind closed doors.
At first, the Pulaski board was a bit uncomfortable at the openness with which Burns did business, according to board member Ann Neighbors. It took a little getting used to, she said, but she has come to appreciate the change.
"It's so much easier to just have it all up on the table," she said. "The teachers love it; the administrators like it. I can't remember the last one [executive session] we had."
by CNB