Columns

COUNTY LINE

By DAVE LANGE

Bainbridge Township Trustee Matthew Lynch just may be the most outstanding newly elected public official I've seen in the Chagrin Valley or Geauga County during my 32 years in the news business here.

He may not be the smartest, most knowledgeable, fairest, most reputable, hardest-working, most fiscally responsible, most inspiring or simply the best local politician to come along in that time. Such qualities remain to be seen. But in the sense of being outstanding, meaning standout or conspicuously notable, Mr. Lynch has made an impression on me -- and I don't consider myself easily impressed.

Last week, he did something I cannot recall happening before. Not only did he eloquently defend the concept of government by the people and the truest intent of the Ohio Open Meetings Act, but he put his words into action. First, he told his fellow Bainbridge trustees, Jeffrey Markley and Linda White, that their intent to meet behind closed doors in executive session to discuss the possible purchase of property was inappropriate. Then, when they headed into their private meeting anyway, he declined to join them and walked out of the Town Hall.

"In general, executive sessions should be used only when absolutely necessary," Mr. Lynch said. "They should not be used as excuses to shield discussions from the public."

The position that public officials should meet in private "only when absolutely necessary" accurately reflects the purpose of the open meetings act, also known as the Ohio Sunshine Law. It states: "This section shall be liberally construed to require public officials to take official action and to conduct all deliberations upon official business only in open meetings, unless the subject matter is specifically excepted by law." Unfortunately, the vast majority of public officials liberally construe the specific exceptions as an excuse to exclude the public from public business.

Local elected officials retreat into executive sessions with such regularity that it can get dizzying for members of the public who sit through government meetings with the shaken belief that they are part and parcel to the democratic process.

Confronted with Mr. Lynch's admonition that the business of secrecy as usual is due for a change, his two colleagues harrumphed that they know what's best, and the public be damned.

The law says public officials can meet in private to consider the purchase of property "at competitive bidding, if premature disclosure of information would give an unfair competitive or bargaining advantage to a person whose personal, private interest is adverse to the general public interest." So what if there is no competitive bidding, the apologists for secrecy say. They'll meet in private anyway.

I don't know what particular property the trustees discussed secretly last week, but two parcels have been under consideration. Both are residentially zoned, which is unlikely to change, and they have serious physical limitations. For obvious reasons, there are no competitive bidders. The taxpayers are entitled to know where the township's money is going before it's spread like fertilizer on somebody's retirement estate.

Many times I've harped about unjustified private sessions in this space, and many times I've been vilified by the perpetrators. Thanks to Mr. Lynch, I no longer feel like a lonely voice in the wilderness.

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