Monroe County Legislator Rachel Barnhart has introduced legislation that would end the county administration's use of closed-door meetings to brief lawmakers on major issues due for a vote within 30 days.
Barnhart's proposal would narrow an exception to state open meetings law that allows party caucuses in legislative bodies to meet and deliberate in sessions that are closed to the public.
Over the past year, County Executive Adam Bello's office has set up caucus briefings around pending legislation for spending federal pandemic stimulus money, appointing a public health commissioner, and expanding Seneca Park Zoo, Barnhart said.
"By the time you get to a committee meeting or a full Legislature meeting, legislators have already had their questions ... answered," Barnhart said. "So if legislators already have their questions answered, by the time they walk into these public sessions, the meetings become more like a formality or even a sham."
The law would not prohibit legislators from reaching out to the administration individually to ask questions out of the public eye.
The state's open meetings law allows members of a legislative body who are in the same party to hold meetings that are closed to the public to discuss pending legislation. The law also allows them to include administration staff in those sessions.
Even though the caucus meetings are allowed by state law, they are inappropriate and should be discouraged, said Paul Wolf, an attorney and president emeritus of the New York Coalition for Open Government, a watchdog group.
"These are public officials elected by the public, paid by taxpayer dollars," Wolf said. "You know, these discussions should occur in public."
Barnhart said she drafted the legislation partly in response to the Seneca Park Zoo briefings, which the administration organized in response to legislation awarding a new design contract for an expansion that's in the works.
During those meetings, legislators learned that the county was scrapping a design for the zoo expansion that drew one bid that came in at more than $50 million higher than the $121 million budget. Administration officials have said the construction and bidding environment were part of the reason for the high bid, but necessary design changes were also a factor.
The county spent $6.7 million on the scuttled design. Officials have said the county will be able to reuse approximately $700,000 of that work.
County lawmakers will begin discussing Barnhart's measure during committee meetings later this month.
