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lie a chance to sound off on the issue, but it’s after the fact, not before. It’s rather like allowing a defendant to make a public statement after he’s been sentenced to hang. Thanks, but I’d rather have made my case before being sentenced.
The Virginia Supreme Court last week ruled that Culpeper County’s Board of Supervisors violated the state’s open-meetings law in 2004 when they met in private to discuss their differences with the county school board over a high school construction contract. The court ordered the county to pay attorney’s fees of over $100,000 incurred by local newspapers that sued to challenge the closed meeting.
The court ruling indicates the state’s Supreme Court takes the meaning of the open meetings law seriously, and will closely scrutinize public bodies’justifications for closing meetings. The Rappahannock Board of Supervisors should bear this ruling in mind before closing future sessions. The public’s “right to know” is not just an empty slogan—it’s the law.
James P Gannon is a former newspaper reporter ana editor who lives near Flint Hill.
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