Judging by crowd size, the two hot topics of the March 27 meeting of the Greenbelt City Council were the swearing in of four new police officers and the opinion from the Maryland Open Meetings Compliance Board regarding the complaint submitted by Brian Almquist charging council with violating the provisions of the Maryland Open Meetings Act on 12 occasions. Two proclamations were also presented.
Open Meetings
As required by the board, Mayor Emmett Jordan read a statement summarizing their findings. The board found that “this is not a case in which a public body concealed the occurrence of secret meetings from the public or simply disregarded the Act.” It found that meetings discussing transitions of individual employees and the evaluation of an individual employee (March 16, May 18 and May 25) and succession planning (March 9) were administrative in nature and not covered by the Act. It also found that the October 31 meeting to interview applicants for city manager fell within the personnel exception of the Act and was a proper executive session topic.
Read the story in the April 6 News Review