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executive meeting. And yet - I'm sorry, that's on the second page. On the first page <br />that I've given you, it's a copy of the latest Police Commission Meeting and under <br />EXECUTIVE SESSION, essentially all a police officer has to do is write a letter to the <br />Police Commission at this point and say I want to go into executive session. There's no <br />vote taken other than a voice vote. There's no discussion. There's no reason is given <br />for going into the executive session except that the police officer asks for it. That's not <br />in compliance with the Sunshine Law. Nowhere in Section 92-5 will you find that a <br />person can say I want to go into executive session. It says that a person can say, if the <br />board or commission says we're going into executive session, the person has the right <br />to say I would rather this be held in open session but the board or commission must <br />make its determination that one of these matters under Section 92-5 in the Sunshine <br />Law allows for them to go into executive session and that must be put into the minutes <br />and a record of the vote made. Taking a voice vote and ayes and ayes is one thing <br />and I guess that meets the requirement of the law but they really should be required to <br />take a vote member by member on these choices of going into executive session. This <br />is an important thing. The very beginning of the Sunshine Law is very specific about <br />the purpose of this is to make sure that the folks in this state are privy to all the <br />information that they are allowed to have or should have to make their informed <br />decisions. Now I'd like to go to the last page of what I handed you and under, it's <br />actually Section 92-5 and that's (b) and it says 'In no instance shall the board make a <br />decision or deliberate toward a decision in executive meeting on matters not directly <br />related'. A lot of boards are doing that. They're going into executive session. This is <br />the minutes of the regular meeting for the October 11, 1995 Board of Ethics. This is <br />the Executive Board minutes. They covered stuff in here that wasn't even on the <br />agenda. And here's the January 10th meeting. These are two that I happened to be <br />able to get a hold of solely because they were subpoenaed in a judicial case which <br />made them public records but there's acres and acres of notes, of stuff in there that has <br />nothing to do with executive session. We need to get the County Charter into <br />compliance with the state law so that we're not at some risk, I guess, of being sued <br />perhaps. I'm sorry, the last page, that was the third page. The last page I have for you <br />is the Section 92-9 Minutes. And this is the reason that those reasons must be specific <br />in the minutes when a board or commission goes into executive session. The minutes <br />shall be public records and shall be available within thirty days after the meeting except <br />where disclosure would be inconsistent with 92-5; provided that minutes of executive <br />meetings may be withheld so long as their publication would defeat the lawful purpose <br />of the executive meeting, and no longer.' We have acres and acres of minutes that <br />have not been vented partly because we have no money and that's sort of <br />understandable but the other reason is that acres and acres of those minutes should <br />never have been held in executive session in my opinion, and I think somebody should <br />take a look at that but we need to bring this County Charter back into compliance with <br />the Sunshine Law. That's what I would have to say about that. <br />I have one other thing. I have several other things but I've been told that you'll be back <br />5 <br />