The three commissioners of Piscataquis County apparently violated the laws at Maine’s public meetings when they passed a resolution objecting to governments Janet Mills ‘COVID-19 measures, making numerous false statements and referring to the coronavirus as the’ Wuhan -virus’.
The three commissioners unanimously adopted the resolution on January 13 after a series of emails and calls, chairman James White said Monday. The public does not have a way of observing the deliberations of the commissioners, as is required for public bodies making policy decisions. Commissioners did not hold a meeting on 13 January.
“It was about correspondence,” White said. “There was no meeting.”
The commissioners plan to sign the document at a meeting scheduled for Tuesday at 8:30 a.m., although the signing of the resolution is not on the official agenda of the meeting.
The resolution objecting to the state’s COVID-19 prevention measures contains numerous lies – for example, that face coverings cause pneumonia and respiratory illness – and caused negative reactions from residents on Piscataquis County’s Facebook page when commissioners posted its text on Thursday. has. It calls for Mills’ “mandates and closure” to be lifted, saying the measures could not stop the spread of COVID-19 while harming the state’s economy.
The decision of a public body on a policy matter is a public meeting, said Bernard Kubetz, Bangor’s lawyer, who specializes in public government laws. A public meeting must be publicly announced in advance and held openly. During the COVID-19 pandemic, public bodies may hold online meetings, but members of the public should still have the opportunity to observe it.
“I do not think it is slipping,” Kubetz said of the approval of the Piscataquis County resolution. “This is a public meeting, and it was inappropriate to do the business by email.”
White denied that deliberation and the adoption of the resolution violated government laws, pointing out that all three commissioners were never in the same phone call or email chain at the same time. A phone call with all three commissioners would be a public meeting that would trigger the requirements for public notice and public participation.
Although Maine law does not prohibit e-mail or telephone calls between members of a public body, it must consult in public proceedings and decide on matters of substance. If members of a public body use individual communications to conduct public affairs outside the public view, the law does not allow it.
Kubetz, who is also the lawyer for the Bangor Daily News, said it made no difference that commissioners planned to formally sign the resolution at a public meeting on Tuesday after previously accepting it.
Violation of Maine’s Freedom of Access Act is a civil offense that can result in a $ 500 fine for government bodies whose members commit them.
In addition to accepting the resolution from the public point of view, the commissioners did not make the signing of the resolution on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting available on the country’s website. However, the text of the resolution mentions the plans to sign it on 19 January.
It is also a violation of Maine’s laws on freedom of access, Kubetz said.
“You are supposed to give advance notice of the meeting and what you are going to discuss during the meeting,” Kubetz said. “I think it would also be an offense.”