“Sunlight is the best disinfectant,”
said Louis Brandeis way back in 1913 and it is still generally true today. While soap and alcohol might be more quickly effective against the corona virus there is nothing like shinning a light on the workings of government and corporations to improve performance.
Members of Saratoga County’s government got caught in a scheme to pay time and a half pay to some employees, administrators and (maybe) supervisors for showing up during the pandemic to work their non-overtime hours. When the press and the public heard about it and expressed their dismay the county government decided to take back the pay. Further information shows that many Supervisors were unaware of the initial decision, and didn’t have a say in the follow-up decision - and those party to the decision hadn’t followed established procedures – or at least can’t explain when they did what.
That’s what happens when there is little effort to follow the spirit of the Open Meetings Law! While Saratoga County follows the letter of the Open Meetings Law there is no real effort to actually let the public follow what is going on. Agendas are seldom available even 24 hours in advance of a meeting, and when you pick up an agenda at a meeting it is a list of resolution numbers with the briefest of descriptions.
During the regular meetings of the Board of Supervisors many supervisors don’t speak into their microphones, and the chair doesn’t call on Supervisors by name, so the public is hard pressed to follow what is going on.
Since the pandemic things have actually improved for the public wanting to observe a meeting because the supervisors are calling in to a conference call number and have to identify themselves before they speak or their colleagues and the transcript won’t know who they are. And the public has been provided with a listen in number so that they can hear what is going on without having to drive to Ballston Spa during the afternoon (which during normal times keeps the working public from attending).
The League has for many years called on the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors to provide a live video broadcast of their meetings. The City of Saratoga Springs has been providing real time video access to their meetings for many years – through both Republican and Democratic administrations – the County should follow their example!
Come to the Meetup: Saratoga County Government – Is It Working? To learn more about the way our county government operates. That’s on May 20th via Zoom.
Barb Thomas
May 11, 2020