Osupa 11 February 2010 Breaking News, MXO News No Comment

The Cleveland Plain Dealer

By Henry J. Gomez, The Plain Dealer

Posted January 11th 2010

CLEVELAND, Ohio — After citizen outcry and threats from the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, Cuyahoga County transition leaders have decided to make all their committee meetings open to the public.

Martin Zanotti, the former mayor of Parma Heights and one of the most visible faces of the volunteer transition effort, informed The Plain Dealer of the move this morning.

The backtrack comes one day after the ACLU blasted a plan by Zanotti and county Administrator James McCafferty to hold many transition meetings behind closed doors. The committees will suggest cost-savings and other measures to a new county executive and 11-member council that will take office next year in a new, voter-approved charter government.

But Zanotti said it was not ACLU’s saber-rattling that changed his or McCafferty’s minds. He blamed a lack of organization for the delayed acceptance of full transparency.

“This process is in its infancy, and we’re just getting organized,” Zanotti said.

“Honestly, I don’t think it did” make a difference, he said of the ACLU’s threat of a lawsuit if officials did not open all meetings to the public. “They may have jumped the gun a bit.

McCafferty and Zanotti previously expressed concern that allowing reporters and citizens at all meetings would distract volunteer transition advisers from speaking freely. They also worried about having media around when discussing sensitive issues such as layoffs and consolidation.

But feedback from the transition group’s public engagement committee, which has been meeting in private, ultimately convinced leaders to open the meetings, Zanotti said.

“Their feedback was that we’re better off running the risk of people being reluctant to say something than we are raising conerns that we’re making recommendations behind closed doors,” he said.

A schedule of meetings will be released this afternoon, Zanotti added. The first public meeting is expected to be a public engagement meeting scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 17.

Update – 10:10 a.m.: Christine Link of the ACLU of Ohio is pleased that transition leaders have agreed to open their meetings but promises to watch closely to make sure they are true to their word.

“We will be vigilant, as will the citizens now,” Link said. “This is an example of the system working.”

Also, Tim Russo, a political blogger who plans to run for a seat on the new Cuyahoga County Council, weighed in with this: “The process from which this transition’s recommendations will emerge is inherently illegitimate. That makes the resulting recommendations illegitimate to the core. As a member of the new council, I will oppose their implementation on the grounds of transparency.”