To the editor:
Lincoln County’s deflection program is moving forward. That is the good news. The bad news is that the whole process was way more difficult and contentious than necessary.
During the Sept. 18 county cCommissioner’s meetings, deflection committee members harshly criticized county staff and commissioners for “lack of transparency.” Committee members had obviously reached a decision that the coordinator should reside in the district attorney’s office.
Oregon law requires that a committee reaching decisions and making recommendations to a public body is subject to its open meetings requirements. This means that the committee meetings should have been open to the public, and minutes should have been kept.
It is ironic that committee members continue to accuse others of lack of transparency when they themselves were guilty of holding meetings in secret and failing to take minutes. Had the meetings been open to the public as required and minutes been openly shared, everyone would have been on the same page. This could have saved a great deal of time and frustration.
Although it was convenient for the committee to lay blame on county staff and commissioners, it was the committee’s fault that communication broke down.
- Susan Florentino/Depoe Bay
Ms. Florentino,
With all due respect, you are not correct. The subcommittee meetings were not required to be public.
As our chief law enforcement officer, Sheriff Landers, says in
https://www.facebook.com/lincolncountysheriff/posts/media-releaseseptember-20-2024sheriff-statement-regarding-deflection-programon-s/939077958252739/
“it did not fall within the public meeting laws and was simply a workgroup focused on developing a program. ”
and
“it wasn’t a public meeting is the fact we only had one commissioner attend, that being Commissioner Miller, in the case of our deflection program workgroup.”
and
“If, the LPSCC committee would have made a formal motion, vote and approval to create this subcommittee, then yes, it would have been a public meeting. But, that was not how this subcommittee was formed, just like the animal shelter meeting and several other meetings that occur every day in government.”
I hope that helps clear up any misunderstandings on this important issue.