Lebanon Supervisor Holds Illegal Meeting?

To the Editor:
(Lebanon, NY) The Oct. 22 and Oct. 29 issues of the Mid-York Weekly printed legal notices from the Town of Lebanon, announcing a budget workshop on Oct. 26 and a budget hearing on Nov. 5, both beginning at 8:00 p.m. A copy of the legal notice is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lebanon_ny/4136857401/

Two members of the public, who attended the budget workshop, arrived at 7:45 to find that Supervisor Goldstein had called the meeting to order at 7:30. They objected that the meeting announcement had said 8:00. Mr. Goldstein denied it, and continued the meeting.
I raised the subject of this event at the Nov. 9 Lebanon Town Board meeting. Supervisor Goldstein again denied that the budget workshop meeting notice had said 8:00 rather than 7:30, and further denied that the meeting announcement had been in the form of a legal notice. The Public Access TV folks have it on tape.

Starting a public meeting well before the published start time appears to violate the NYS Open Meetings Law. I find it disturbing that the Supervisor would do this, especially while running for re-election on an “open government” platform.

I find it considerably more disturbing that Mr. Goldstein didn’t suggest that perhaps he, or the town clerk, or even the newspaper, had made an error that he had been unaware of. He just flatly, emphatically denied that the meeting notice said what it said, and was in the form it was in. There is a word for this.

Perhaps Mr. Goldstein believes that image is more important than substance, and that facts don’t matter at all if he denies them vigorously enough.

I intend to bring a recent newspaper with me to any public meetings I attend in Lebanon henceforth, in case I need to prove what the meeting announcement said.
We are fortunate to live in a place where open government is not just a slogan, it is a legal right of citizens and a legal obligation of our elected officials. It is a right worth defending.

Daniel Clark, South Lebanon

2 Comments on "Lebanon Supervisor Holds Illegal Meeting?"

Jim Goldstein on Sat, 28th Nov 2009 10:23 pm

I would like to respond to Mr. Clark’s letter to clarify a few things.
First, he should share he is the spouse or partner of my former opponent — in the interest of full disclosure.
Two, politics aside, his portrayal of my comments is not accurate. The resolution adopted by the Town Board at our Oct. regular meeting called for a budget workshop meeting, which was held on Oct. 26, to start at 7:30 p.m., the public hearing on the budget at 8 p.m. on Nov. 5- I had not seen the document referenced when the issue was brought up but I was aware of a misprint in the Mid-York Weekly newsline and simply noted that I had no control over what the newspaper published since they have made mistakes before on meeting times — the most recent being listing a 7 p.m. meeting time for our Nov. 9 meeting when we always meet at 7:30 p.m. for our regularly scheduled meeting. Mr. Clark seems to take offense that I did not share his “outrage” over what turned out to be a simple mistake, perhaps by our Town Clerk, perhaps by our official publication, the Mid-York. All I commented on was that my e-mail notices, news releases and the resolution all listed 7:30 p.m. for the budget workshop meeting.
Mr. Clark also did not share that Ms. Galbraith and Mrs. Smith arrived at 7:50 p.m. during the budget worksop meeting which lasted until 8:30 p.m. , they were the only members of the public present for the budget workshop, Ms. Galbraith had an opportunity to ask a number of questions that we answered regarding the budget and particularl line items or issue she had questions about, and I did clarify that the budget workshop meeting was set by resolution for 7:30 p.m., the budget hearing for 8 on Nov. 5 and that there might have been a mix up. If the wrong time was published for the budget workshop, I would apologize for the mistake if it had been mine but I will leave that to others to attend to. There is no requirement we have a legal notice for a budget workshop. Our public hearing notice was complied with for the budget and it should be noted that no one attended the public hearing on the budget.
The next week, at our regularly scheduled town board meeting on Nov. 9, Mr. Clark raised this issue. I noted the errors I was aware of, did not have the legal notice in my possession and would simply observe that the Town Clerk is the elected town official who puts the legal notices in the newspaper, and if he has an objection, he is free to raise it with her, but I suspect it was simply an accidental error and nothing else.
The need to turn this into some kind of malevolent activity is simply playing politics with a non-issue. Those who wished to comment on the town budget were able to do so during our budget workshop on Oct. 26, none came to our public hearing on Nov. 5 and there were also comments heard on Nov. 9 during our privilege of the floor before the town board took action to adopt the 2010 budget.

As I have said repeatedly to many other residents over the years, I have absoutely no contol over what local newspapers publish but I do agree that our legal notice on the budget workshop, while not a requirement,appears to have been in error. I do not think it qualifies as an illegal meeting as the meeting certainly extended long enough for review of every line item of the 2010 budget and there was time given for public comment well after 8 p.m. for those who might have misunderstood or not been aware of the start time of the budget workshop.
Finally, I have an e-mail mailing list of local residents numbering nearly 100 and I send out updates to regularly including the accurate times for all hearings, and such also appeared in several news articles in various publications, so I think there was certainly ample opportunity for those who were interested to have learned about the meetings and times.

Daniel Clark on Wed, 2nd Dec 2009 7:32 pm

Anyone can make a mistake, as almost anyone will freely admit. Mr. Goldstein is quick to blame the newspaper. The newspaper points out that most meeting announcements are received as email, and are electronically copied and pasted, which is unlikely to introduce errors.

The Open Meetings Law requires the town to submit meeting announcements to the newspaper of record. According to Robert Freeman of the NYS Committee on Open Government, when a meeting time is published in the newspaper of record, the published time becomes the required start time of the meeting, even if it differs from custom. How else would the public know if a meeting time needed to be changed? It does not matter whether an error originated with the Clerk, the Supervisor, or the newspaper. To be legal, a meeting must not start before the published time.

I never suggested that anything sinister took place, merely something sloppy, unprofessional, and arguably illegal. Although no harm was done in this instance, the Supervisor is wrong to treat his legal obligations with casual disregard. And as he essentially admitted in his response, this is not the first time he has started a public meeting at the wrong time and blamed the newspaper.

Daniel Clark, South Lebanon

Lebanon Supervisor Holds Illegal Meeting?

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