An editorial from The Inter-Mountain
ELKINS, W.Va. — As The Inter-Mountain celebrates Sunshine Week, we plan to highlight local agencies that operate openly and with transparency, as well as instances when public information has been harder to come by, and officials have been reluctant to let the public know what was going on behind closed doors.
Today we put the spotlight on one local governmental body that has made tremendous efforts recently to be open and transparent: Elkins City Council, which, along with Mayor Van Broughton, is so committed to open government that it brought in an expert last year to talk about the Open Meetings Law.
C. Joan Parker, the executive director of the West Virginia Ethics Commission, spoke at Elkins City Council’s June 6 meeting about open meetings and ethics laws.
Among the tips she passed on were:
Councils, commissions and boards of education can vote on motions only during public meetings they attend in person.
“No written votes, no secret votes, no proxy votes,” Parker said, stressing that votes cannot be taken during executive sessions…
