The secret mischiefs

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Kevin Harvison

May 27, 2009

By Matt Lane The McAlester News-Capital Wed May 27, 2009, 10:58 AM CDT

Pittsburg County Commissioner Kevin Smith blinked. Confronted with the law, he and his fellow commissioners nixed a proposed secret session.

They don’t deserve any praise for this action. All these politicians did was not willfully violate the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act after they had accepted an agenda rife with illegalities. No, praise isn’t in order but an admonation is: Learn the law and abide by the law.

Just becuase you get to call yourself a county commissioner doesn’t mean you can pick and chose which laws suit you and which ones do not.

The behind-closed-doors session was called to discuss personel who work at the county’s animal shelter.

The agenda item did not list what section of the Open Meeting Act allowed the secret meeing and the item did not name the position or name of the person being called on the carpet.

Even pushing aside the myriad problems with Smith being his wife’s supervisor (Pam Smith is empolyed by the county at the animal shelter), not one of the three commissioners should have accepted this week’s regular meeting agenda as presented on Friday. They all should have questioned the entry for the secret executive session, demanding that it be written as the law requires.

Instead, they stood mute until the issue was raised by this newspaper and other concerned citizens of Pittsburg County.

That is a monumental example of three officials not applying due diligence to the job voters elected them to do. In this case, they failed.

This issue isn’t dead. I am sure the wheels are turning and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some new scheme hatched to get whatever end Tuesday’s secret session was supposed to reach.

The difference this time is there are plenty of people watching closely what the Pittsburg County Commission is doing in the name of the citizens it represents.

Many people are watching.

So is this newspaper.

Matt Lane is the editor of the McAlester News-Capital. Send him hate mail or encouragement to: Editor, P.O. Box 987, McAlester, OK, 74501. Call him at 421-2022 or send an e-mail to editor@mcalesternews.com.

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