There is much commotion about. The Baldwin County commissioners held an “emergency meeting” on Tuesday, Dec. 11, in response to the district attorney’s threat to file a lawsuit charging the commissioners with voting outside public meetings in violation to the state’s Open Meetings Act. The District Attorney, Judy Newcomb, was adamant that the Baldwin County Commissioners violated this act by being polled in emails by county officials and then putting items from the poll onto meeting agendas to be voted on.

There have been several instances cited in the last year by Commissioner Chairman Frank Burt of county officials sending emails asking commissioners to respond collectively and individually to issues that could and have ended up on a meeting agenda. Polling or deliberating to commissioners by email or in telephone conversation is considered a violation because it is not open to the public to read or hear. I don’t know what they were thinking when they did this, but I’m sure all those involved in the meeting agenda were thinking it was faster to discuss by email what needed to be done instead of waiting for a meeting to get issues on the agenda. Or maybe the issues were intended to be quietly placed on the agenda so the commissioners could vote on it without much discussion. I suppose we’ll never know. But, according to Chairman Frank Burt, this “emergency meeting” on Tuesday with the county commissioners “will move toward mending our ways.”

I feel really uninformed because I had no idea what an Open Meetings Act was or that it even existed. The Act (which replaces the old “Sunshine Law”) says that Alabama citizens have open access to agencies, boards, commissions and other governmental bodies which conduct the people’s business including municipal and city committees. I was really curious as to what the old “Sunshine Law” said and I found from reading on the Alabama state government website, that it was a law that prohibited secret sessions of certain state and local boards and commissions. It was first proposed in 1915 by J. Miller Bonner, a senator from Camden while in his first term in the Alabama legislature. According to Bonner, the law came to be from distrust for “secret societies” that prevailed from the turn of the century. In 1975, the Open Meetings Act was first voted through (replacing the “Sunshine Law”) but has since been revised in 2005.

All of this really fascinated me. It stems from the “Old South” tradition of long ago with its secret society meetings when the general public was not aware of what meetings were having an affect on state or city government, reforming to a more modern and open “for the people and by the people” kind of government the rest of the country already knows. Change for most people in an area is difficult to accept but this Open Meetings Act is a good policy to have when there are public issues involved. Especially for our own county commissioners in deciding what is best for our area. I would want to know of all the discussion for an important issue to the community and I hope that they will abide by the Open Meetings Act so we can.

Loxley resident Valerie J. Steimle is the author of two books, “Home Is Where The Heart Is, A look at strengthening the American Family,” and her latest book, “Home Is Where The Learning Is” (www.amazon.com/gp/product/1403379637). Contact her at valeriesteimle@yahoo.com or visit her website at www.stengthenyourhome.com.