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Danville Citizens Committee ranks applicants but votes illegally

April 13, 2012|By STEPHANIE MOJICA | smojica@amnews.com

Seven Danville Citizens Committee members met Thursday to rank eight applications for the vacant city manager position, and for a second time, the panel appears to have violated the state’s open meetings laws by casting its votes behind closed doors.

As a result, the committee’s actions could be declared null and void, and they would have to be repeated in open session. A formal complaint must be filed requesting such a remedy.

The committee spent about two hours in executive session. City Commissioner Gail Louis and committee member David Longenecker were absent.

When the committee last met, it chose four out of 12 applicants for city commissioners to interview. But they were supposed to choose the best seven, according to Mayor Bernie Hunstad.

The names were redacted from all resumes reviewed.

Two of the four people withdrew their applications, leaving eight remaining without a rank. During its meeting Tuesday, commissioners asked the citizens committee to rank the other applications by Friday. Louis submitted her rankings Wednesday and Longenecker will submit his by today, according to City Clerk Donna Peek.

Members of the committee voted behind closed doors on all matters, including when to close the executive session, in both Thursday’s meeting and a March 8 meeting. Kentucky Revised Statutes declare in Section 61.815(c) that “no final action may be taken at a closed session.”

Members declined to discuss specifics about the work they did in Thursday’s executive session, noting only that the required task was completed.

Jeremy Rogers, an attorney with the Kentucky Press Association’s Freedom of Information hotline, said while the citizens committee legally can discuss the vacant city manager position in closed meetings, it cannot vote on any matters while in executive session.

“There is no such thing as a legal secret vote,” Rogers said. “Any vote is supposed to be open.”

Public agencies can convene in closed session for limited purposes under the law, one of those being the hiring, firing or discipline of personnel. General personnel policies cannot be legally discussed in secret. A motion and a vote is required to adjourn into executive session, and it must include the reason. The body must return to the public eye to take any action on the matters discussed in executive session.

The city manager position became vacant in May when Paul Stansbury was fired in a 3-2 vote. Interim City Manager Ron Scott stepped into the role in August, but was not among the original four candidates chosen by the citizens committee, according to Hunstad.

Not counting staff time by city employees or billable hours from city attorneys, the city has spent more than $300,000 in 11 months on city manager-related matters, according to a reporter’s recent audit of financial records obtained under an open records request.

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