Alan Klein, the Harper's Choice representative to the CA board, has been anonymously accused of ethics violations. But the very people who elected Mr. Klein are not allowed to hear the details and context of the purported specific ethics violations. The CA Board seems to want to keep this matter behind closed doors.
On Feb. 9, I specifically went to the CA Board meeting to hear about the situation. Despite many vigorous requests from members of the public to keep the meeting open, and Mr. Klein's statement that he was willing to waive privacy, the majority of the board voted to close the meeting. We still do not know the outcome or the content of the board's secret discussion that followed.
This is appalling on one level and disheartening on another. This is appalling because the voters of elected officials have every right to know about the integrity of the representative they put into office and factors related and discussed. Unless a law was broken, it is up to the voters to keep or remove the representative from office based on factual and complete information about his performance and importantly, the veracity of the accusation itself.
As Mr. Klein does not work for CA, they cannot "fire" him. Nor should consequences be left up to other elected officials. Can you imagine if such an accusation was made against a state or federal representative and the voters were not permitted to be informed about the issues?
This is disheartening because we moved to Columbia in 1974 for the shared vision, the philosophy, and the sense of community. In every local election, candidates reinforce their support for that sense of community and the importance of transparency because this is our town.
Beverlie Fallik
Columbia