I'm keeping your plans a secret from you.
The Worcester County Government, and the Commissioners in particular, apparently don’t want the citizens and taxpayers of Worcester County to know what’s going on down there in Snow Hill. A bill has been introduced that would allow the County Commissioners to “create, change, discontinue or abolish county offices and departments” part of the board’s executive powers and not subject to the Maryland Open Meetings Act.
This is a continuation and expansion of the efforts by the Commissioners and their staff to wrap as much secrecy as possible around their actions. Agendas for upcoming meetings routinely hide important issues under the rubric ‘Administrative Matters’, rather than listing each item clearly so that interested citizens can decide to attend or not. Last year the Maryland Open Meetings Compliance Board found that the Commissioners were in violation of the Open Meetings Act when they reorganized the county’s land use departments in closed session.
Let’s be clear whose government this is. It does not belong to the County Commissioners, nor does it belong to their staff. Rather, the government of Worcester County belongs to all the citizens and taxpayers of Worcester County and is accountable to them.
Now I’m sure it’s possible for the Commissioners and their attorney to come up with some means of subverting the Open Meetings Act, but is it a good idea? The Maryland Open Meetings Act is based upon the determination of the Maryland General Assembly that:
“It is essential to the maintenance of a democratic society that, except in special and appropriate circumstances:
public business be performed in an open and public manner, and
citizens be allowed to observe:
the performance of public officials and
the deliberations and decisions that making of public policy involves.”
Now this seems like a strong basic concept and should suggest that meetings and deliberations be open wherever possible. It is based on the belief of the founders of our nation, as set forth in Federalist Paper 49:
‘the people are the only legitimate foundation of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter … is derived.’ Government is and should be the servant of the people, and it should be fully accountable to them for the actions which it supposedly takes on their behalf.’
So let’s remind our County Commissioners that we take an interest in our government and want to see and understand the deliberations and decisions that they make as our representatives.
There will be a public hearing on this bill on March 16th. Let the County Commissioners know what you think.