USM regents violated open meetings law, board rules

They failed to follow law when meeting to discuss move to Big Ten

By Childs Walker, The Baltimore Sun

5:31 p.m. EST, February 26, 2013

The state university system's Board of Regents violated Maryland's open meetings law when it met in closed session to discuss the University of Maryland's move to the Big Ten Conference, according to a ruling released Tuesday by a state review panel.

The regents failed to give required public notice and failed to follow proper procedure in closing their Nov. 18 and Nov. 19 meetings, according to the written opinion issued by the three-member Open Meetings Compliance Board. The opinion also says that "at least some part of the Board's discussion should almost certainly have been conducted in open session" and deems inadequate the written summaries of the meetings posted on the university system's website.

Chancellor William E. Kirwan had said in December that the regents failed to follow the law in closing the meetings and said system leaders felt "chastened and regretful for not doing our duties."

The panel's opinion will not affect Maryland's plans to move to the Big Ten in 2014, which were never dependent on approval by the regents. It also carries no penalty, though the regents could face fines of up to $100 each if sued for their actions.

Kirwan has said the regents were merely "confused" as they hastily arranged the meetings. But the review panel rejected the university system's characterization of the violations as "at worst technical."

childs.walker@baltsun.com

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Comments (6)

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dadadata at 9:59 AM March 04, 2013

Wm Kirwan has no responsibility under the law for the illegal actions of the regents. So it's a mystery why Kirwan and Wallace Loh did so much talking about how they were "entitled" to have these closed meetings.

mycrowsa at 10:40 AM February 28, 2013

The open meetings law is toothless. All that violate are laughing at the People. Oh, Kirwan was "confused". Maybe if the Legislature got up off their collective worthless behinds and made the potential penalty HURT, this back-room crap wouldn't occur. Of course, that would make the Legislature subject to the law and that will never happen. Oh, ha ha ha (wink, nod). Welcome to Maryland..........

cwals99 at 12:36 PM February 27, 2013

Well, the important issue with Open Meetings is that they are violated all across the State of Maryland to the point of being ignored. So why does Maryland have all these laws on record that make it sound progressive yet are never enforced making the state as regressive as a Red State let's say. So why did this state review panel look at this one issue....the U of M Big Ten? Simply because it generated wide-spread outrage from citizens....it would not have raised the issue otherwise. So why does Maryland need to look progressive even when it isn't? Third Way corporate pols captured the democratic party when Clinton was in office and this is what moved us from a labor/justice country to a corporate country....therefor the wealth inequity and killing of unions. The only way Third Way corporate pols could win democratic elections was to pretend they were progressive even when the weren't. Maryland is a Third Way corporate stronghold and that is why these pols passed all these progressive laws like Open Meetings and then ignore them. Every now and then the public outrage forces them to act as though they care as with this issue. You see here this ruling will do nothing to prevent this in the future.

The solution for enforcement of all laws...that's called Rule of Law...is to RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE.....VOTE THESE THIRD WAY CORPORATE POLS OUT OF OFFICE!!

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