The County Commission’s arrogant, unyielding insistence on holding secret interviews and making a needlessly fast selection of a new county mayor on Dec. 27 appears now to be vulnerable to a lawsuit as a substantive, deliberate violation of the state’s Open Meetings and Records Act. If that happens – and it well may due to County Attorney Rheubin Taylor’s dubious assumptions in reversing his original opinion disallowing a secret selection process – a court could overturn any secret decision made by commissioners to select a new county mayor.
Commission members should not let that happen. They have plenty of time – fully 120 days from the date that current Mayor Claude Ramsey’s resignation takes effect on Jan. 11 – to do the right thing for voters by opening their selection process to public candidate interviews and public forums for questions to candidates on vital issues.
There simply is no need for the rush to name an interim appointee in just 10 days.
Secrecy fails public and law
The County Commission’s nine members, moreover, should carefully review their county attorney’s reversal on a secret selection process over the past week. It fails the test of legal prudence and logic.