Review of April 10, 2012 Special Board Meeting at 1st Consolidated Fire District in Caledonia, Ohio (About the Chief)

Tonight (April 10, 2012) at 5pm, the 1st Consolidated FIre District held a special meeting at the Caledonia, Ohio fire house. According to First Consolidated's FaceBook page, the special meeting was "about the chief."

Photo credit: mrooczek262 from morguefile.com

Meeting Summary (First 10 Minutes Only)

The meeting started out like most meetings, a short discussion of business followed by some more discussion.

Topics discussed included:

• Lawsuits (Stated in the plural by the man who was speaking - I apologize for my inability to catch his name.)
• Attorneys, and not wanting to speak to any more of them.
• Missing personnel records - and the need to make up some new ones to replace them. (Is there actually any accurate way to replicate made-up (the exact word used was perfected) replacement records?)
• Sunshine Law violations (This topic was quickly dropped and the question was left unanswered.)
• The legality of having other people sit in and vote for missing missing board members (and the detail that that practice is contrary to the rule of law was brought up. - This topic was also dropped quickly.)
• Everyone not on the board was asked to leave approximately 10 minutes into the meeting under the rule of "Executive Session" so the board could discuss litigation (pretty sure that means lawsuits) without interested parties, and reporters, hearing anything the board did not want disclosed.

(Really guys, whatever the big secret is, it's probably not as bad as what the people asked to exit the meeting were thinking.)

So, that is what happened in the aproximately ten minutes of the 1st Consolidated Fire District's special meeting on April 10, 2012, before I, and everyone else in attendance who was not on the board, were introduced to the outside-looking-in side of the door.

Updated to Add Information about Ohio's Sunshine Law and Open Meetings

I'm no lawyer, but I do enjoy research, so I wanted to let you know what I found about Ohio's Sunshine Law as mentioned earlier in this post. The law gives people the right to witness meetings so people know what officials are doing on the public's behalf.

Here is a direct quote from the Ohio Attorney General's website. "Ohio’s Open Meetings Act defines a “meeting” as (1) a prearranged discussion (2) of public business (3) by amajority of the members of a public body. The law enables people to witness what government officials are doing on the public’s behalf. "

Also from our Attorney General, "the public has the right to hear what they are saying, even if no voting or other action occurs. By its terms, with narrow exceptions, the Open Meetings Act requires the members of a public body to discuss and deliberate on official business only in open meetings."

Now, I'm off to see what rules I can find about executive session...

Executive Session Rules

According to The National Law Review, Ohio muinicipalities can only call "Executive Session" under seven very specific cases: (You can read the entire document by visiting the site.)

1. "Matters related to public employees, officials, licensees, or regulated individuals... to consider the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion, or compensation of a public employee, official, licensee, or regulated individual. A public body also may hold an executive session to consider an investigation of charges or complaints against those individuals. (It's probably this one that was in play tonight in Caledonia, given that the organization's Facebook page said the meeting would be "about the chief.")
2. Purchase or sale of property by the public body.
3. Conferences with an attorney for the public body.
4. Matters related to employee bargaining negotiations.
5. Matters that must be kept confidential according to federal or state law.
6. Details of security arrangements and emergency response protocols.
7. Trade secrets.