Will Oppenheimer's Revised 'Open Meetings Law' Impact Scarsdale?

Three bills that lawmakers say will strengthen the state's Open Meetings Law were signed into law last month by Gov. David Paterson, and Westchester Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer (D-Port Chester) was one of the prime sponsors of the legislation. But will the new law, which hopes to give courts teeth with which to enforce failures in adequate publicity or accessibility to the public and press, have any real effect on the traditions of the single-party Scarsdale, where executive sessions and closed-door meetings are par for the course of a nomination-heavy process?

Oppenheimer's bill gives courts more options when a state agency or municipality is found to have violated the law, which requires that most government meetings be publicized and accessible to citizens and reporters.

The other bills set guidelines for audio and video recording of meetings and require local governments to hold meetings in places that are large enough to accommodate members of the public.

Currently, courts may only invalidate an action taken behind closed doors if the measure is never voted on publicly.

In other words, an entity such as a village Board of Trustees can deliberate issues in closed meetings and rubber-stamp them at public meetings in order to skirt the Open Meetings Law.

But Oppenheimer's bill, which takes effect in June, allows courts to block such approvals from being implemented until they're debated publicly. It also gives judges the power to require officials to attend training programs on transparency laws like the OML.

A similar bill was vetoed by Gov. Paterson last year because it further allowed courts to impose a $500 fine for violations of the law. But since that money would have come from taxpayers, Paterson argued, it amounted to a penalty on citizens as well as government bodies.

"The intent of my bill is not to be punitive, but rather to e" Oppenheimer said.  "The training sessions further that objective by lessening the chance of inadvertent violations of the law."

Bob Freeman, who is the state's top transparency watchdog as the head of the Committee on Open Government, applauded the new law.

"This legislation will not only enhance the public's right to know, but will also serve to educate government officials and the public regarding the Open Meetings Law," he said.

"Rather than imposing a fine, as in the case of the bill that was vetoed, this bill will require education and training that in turn fosters compliance with the law."  

Freeman has also called on lawmakers to require that entities found to be in violation of the OML pay the complainants' attorney's fees, but that was not part of the package.

The new laws passed the Legislature last month as Albany was celebrating "Sunshine Week", a national initiative that highlights so-called "sunshine laws" like the OML and the Freedom of Information Act, which grants the public access to a multitude of government documents.

Talk of open government may resonate with some Scarsdale citizens.

The Village's process of nominating candidates for mayor and positions on the Board of Trustees is carried out almost entirely in private. Members of the Citizens Nominating Committee (CNC) hold closed-door meetings to interview prospective candidates and to debate their merits.

So how does the CNC, a 30-member board elected directly by residents, get around the Open Meetings Law?

The CNC election is not sanctioned (or paid for) by the state, and the group is treated as a private political party under the law. Further, the party is privately funded, and no tax dollars are used to bankroll campaigns or elections.

Bruce Wells, who ran this year's March elections and who will become the president of the Scarsdale Forum in June, explained the reasoning for holding closed nomination hearings.

The meetings are private "so that potentially embarrassing personal details that are uncovered – and it happens – are not made public," Wells said.

He added that the attention to privacy and discretion is what convinces some of the best candidates to sign up for office.

"They know when they put their name in the ring, what is said in the room stays in the room. We don't air dirty laundry in public like you have in normal contested elections; no one wants that for a village trustee position," he said.

Still, private parties like the CNC are required to file with the state Board of Elections and are subject to the state's Freedom of Information laws, meaning citizens can request to view the party's financial records.

"But they would mostly consist of lists of donors over $100, and party expenses.  Not very interesting stuff," Wells said.

The bill that requires meetings to be held in an adequately large space takes effect immediately. The third bill, which allows for the recording and webcasting of government meetings, takes effect on April 1, 2011.