A four-member majority of the incoming Anne Arundel County Council met yesterday at the Glen Burnie law offices of council member Cathleen M. Vitale to discuss the next four years, including ways to check County Executive Janet S. Owens.
Vitale, a Republican who is expected to be elected chairwoman when the seven-member panel convenes for its first official meeting Dec. 2, organized the meeting.
Vitale said she intended the meeting to be private, but when reporters from The Sun and The Capital learned about it, she invited them to attend.
"It just seemed like a good idea to talk," Vitale said, referring to the council's new GOP majority. Two council incumbents lost races Nov. 5. Voters also elected a successor to council member John J. Klocko III, who died in an automobile accident last month.
The council's noon gathering did not violate state public meetings law because two of the four attendees - Republicans Edward R. Reilly and Ron Dillon Jr. - have not been inaugurated, said Assistant Attorney General Jack Schwartz, who also serves as counsel to the state's Open Meetings Compliance Board.
It takes four sitting council members to convene an official meeting.
Besides Reilly, Dillon and Vitale, council member Barbara D. Samorajczyk, an Annapolis Democrat, also attended the session.
Council Chairman Bill D. Burlison and Councilwoman Pamela G. Beidle, who were re-elected Nov. 5, and council member-elect C. Edward Middlebrooks also were invited, but did not attend the meeting, Vitale said. Burlison is a Democrat; Beidle and Middlebrooks are Republicans.
"Everyone is anxious to have this council get along," Vitale said.
The state's Open Meetings Act requires officials to notify the press of open meetings convened for "the consideration or transaction of public business."
Not every gathering of a council majority is subject to the requirements of the law, however.
"The act is not violated merely because a majority of a public body might gather together informally before a meeting or during a break," according to a legal analysis by the state attorney general's office. "So long as the members simply engage in social conversation and avoid any phase of the public body's own decision-making process, the act would not apply."
The four incoming council members who attended yesterday's meeting did touch on how they would run the government.
A spokeswoman for a watchdog group that monitors free speech issues applauded council members for opening the meeting to the public.
"They were conscious that they had a problem on their hands and that they had to pay attention to the law," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a nonprofit organization based in Arlington, Va.
Still, Dalglish warned elected officials that private meetings among a few elected officials, even if not illegal, could send the wrong message to constituents.
'Perception problem'
"You do have the potential for a big perception problem there," she said. "I hope this is reminder to them that ... there are people watching and that there are people who care about this stuff."
During the two-hour meeting, the incoming council members talked a lot about ways to improve council relations - the past four years were punctuated with frequent spats. They said they hope not to ostracize fellow council members over political or legislative issues.
The incoming council members also talked about serving as a strong sounding board for policies and programs introduced by the Owens administration. Owens, a Millersville Democrat, has been criticized for lining up votes on the council to meet her campaign goals.
"If we stick together, then we are not going to be marginalized," said Samorajczyk, who has sparred with Owens.
Council members are well aware that Owens controls the budget. The County Council can only cut the budget - not add to it. They said yesterday that they hope to work with Owens to make sure that their own priority projects receive funding in the 2003-2004 spending plan.
'Get our goals met'
"At least for now, everyone wants to work together to make sure that we get our goals met," Dillon said.
Owens - who was out of town yesterday and not available for comment - has also talked of making peace with the council. Recently, she sent council members personal notes of congratulations for winning the election.
Owens, who beat GOP challenger Phillip D. Bissett by about 6,000 votes, has also stated that she hopes to work with the legislative body, not against it.