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More than a year has gone by without Trumbull Commissioner Niki Frenchko attending a single county commissioners weekly workshop meeting.
For years these preliminary meetings have been held in advance of the regular weekly Trumbull County commissioners meetings to give the board an opportunity to publicly review in advance the agenda for the upcoming board of commissioners meeting. These often lengthy meetings, held in open session in the commissioners' conference room, provide a wholly transparent opportunity for elected officials to gather around a conference table with department heads and other county officials, raise questions, hammer out concerns, debate, deep dive and generally discuss issues expected to come up for vote at a future regular commissioners meeting.
These meetings provide an opportunity for in-depth discussion on topics, with hopes of laying ground work for a smooth and efficient subsequent regular meeting when commissioners officially vote on county business. We believe the workshops' transparency is a key part of conducting county business.
From our vantage point, it behooves all members of the elected board to participate in these less formal gatherings, to which the public also is welcome. Further, the meetings are audio recorded and posted on the county commissioners' website for easy public access.
Commissioners Denny Malloy and Mauro Cantalamessa regularly attend. Previously, Cantalamessa and former Commissioner Frank Fuda attended. And previous to that, Cantalamessa, Fuda and former Commissioner Dan Polivka participated. We could go on and on naming commissioners who regularly cleared time in their calendar for these important, open discussions -- except for Frenchko.
Frenchko, instead, has avoided the meetings since early in her elected tenure.
She tells us she does not need to attend the weekly work sessions because she holds her own individual meetings with department heads ahead of the regular public meetings in order to do her research and get her questions answered.
The problem is, however, that her decision to meet individually with department heads does not constitute a public meeting, and therefore can be conducted without need for openness and without any record of the discussion.
Now, let us be clear: Frenchko's individual meetings are perfectly legal.
We have no reason to doubt that Frenchko asks important and logical questions of department heads and county officials during her meetings. Certainly, her fellow commissioners, county colleagues and constituents likewise could benefit from these conversations. So what is there to hide? Why hold these meetings out of the public eye?
When questioned by our reporter, Frenchko said she does "a better job for taxpayers by doing a deep dive into backup information, reading every page of every change order, contract, spreadsheet, and gathering more info as I require."
Bravo!
Still, we wonder why Frenchko couldn't conduct this same level of research and also participate in discussions at the workshop meetings?
Further, obligating county employees and officials to engage in additional one-on-one meetings with Frenchko while also participating in a separate meeting with the other commissioners to discuss the same topic is an incredibly inefficient duplication of effort and time.
Frenchko also complains that audio-recorded workshops should not be considered a required meeting because, she claims, only the video recorded meetings count as official minutes. Further, she points out that commissioners do not accept and approve minutes at the subsequent workshop, according to Roberts Rules of Order.
The Ohio Attorney General's 2023 Ohio Sunshine Law manual states that "because neither the Open Meetings Act nor the Public Records Act addresses the medium on which a public body must keep the official meeting minutes, a public body may make this determination for itself." The manual also states any recordings made during public meetings constitute a public record.
We believe commissioners and their office staff have met this guideline.
However, if Frenchko believes commissioners fall short because the meetings are recorded on audio and not video, or because they fail to vote to approve minutes of the previous meeting, or because of any other reason, then we urge her to seek a legal opinion from the county prosecutor's office. If the prosecutor determines commissioners are falling short on requirements of Ohio's open meeting laws, then they should address that issue and correct it immediately.
We would encourage and support that move.
Also, we remind Malloy, president of the board, to ensure no unfair condescending or disrespectful comments are directed toward any commissioner, and that these public meetings are conducted and recorded lawfully and efficiently.
At the end of the day, we see no better option for transparent in-depth discussion of public business, permissible under Ohio Sunshine Laws.
In the name of public service, we urge Frenchko to rethink her refusal to attend these workshop sessions.