Some Walk Out of Last Commissioners Meeting
According to at least one person who was at the last Susquehanna County Commissioners meeting as well as published reports, a number of attendees walked out of the meeting due to the apparent unwillingness of the commissioners to share meaningful information from a vendor who was presenting at the time.
Will anyone who attended that meeting please expand on this? Thank you.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:01 am
For those of us who can’t come early Wednesday mornings, what happened at the meeting?
October 21st, 2008 at 12:08 pm
If this indeed did happen, it only further highlights the Warren administration’s complete lack of transparency.These nine minute meetings twice a month to administer a multi-million dollar PUBLIC business is wrong.What appears even more strange is the apparent agreement of the remaining Commissioners in this ‘ do as little in public” government operation. Can’t wait to see who promises what in the next election.
October 24th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Copied from Commissioner MaryAnn Warren’s website
~October 20, 2008
I’ve gotten numerous calls and emails regarding our October 8th Commissioners’ meeting and the reported ‘walkout’ of citizens and anyone that knows me, knows, I must comment on it. First, I don’t believe anyone walked out of the Commissioners’ meeting. The meeting lasted approximately 24 minutes with 5 year increment anniversaries recognized for 3 of our employees; 2 with 20 years and 1 with 10 years. WOW! Sincere dedication and commitment/service to the County! After their recognitions, these employees returned to their respective departments. The agenda then included the usual ratifying and/or approval of monies spent in regard to salaries, taxes, and necessary monthly expenses. It also included approval of and money spent for necessary seminars, trainings, etc. There was also the adoption of a proclamation, declaring October 2008 as Breast Cancer Awareness Month in Susquehanna County. The agenda incorporated the usual hirings, the accepting of a resignation with regret, the formation of a “Gas/Oil Exploration Task Force” and numerous contracts and maintenance agreements were approved for signing. At this point, I never witnessed anyone leaving the meeting, but I certainly could have missed it as Commissioners, we are involved in running our ‘business meeting’. A motion was then made to close the Commissioners’ meeting and open the Retirement Board meeting. At this point, the audience cleared the room as usual, nothing out of the ordinary; citizens don’t regularly stay for this meeting. I certainly am not offended by this.
The press was still seated at the press table until it was asked of us if a press release/written documentation was available to be shared with them at this time. When a reply of ‘no’ was given, a couple of these professionals left the Retirement Board meeting. It’s my understanding that journalists report on the facts of the meeting. I would have guessed that staying and listening to the facts could have generated a report of the meeting. As Commissioners, we have nothing to hide and the perception of this happening, may be caused by some press personnel failing to report to the public with the proper facts.
This administration has been very transparent with all contracts/agreements going through meetings before signing. All Commissioners and the public are aware of all contracts/agreements prior to being signed. One reason that meetings may appear to be much shorter is that Proclamations are not read at the meetings. We do make available copies of those Proclamations for the press/public.
The Retirement Board will be sending a press release to the newspapers regarding the pension fund as we have done in the past. Questions have been asked and comments have been made comparing the County’s Pension Fund and the state of the stock market. Although the fund was affected because of the aggressive downward surge of the market, we have a very diversified fund, and fortunately, the impact on the fund was considerably less than the overall market.