I recently attended my first public meeting of the
Washington County Commissioners. If reporters could risk their lives imbedded
in Ukraine, the least I could do was take the time to show my support for our
commissioners and election office employees. All have been under constant
verbal attack (and recent threats of physical violence) as they attempt to move
on from the 2020 election and prepare for this May’s local primary vote. The
public meeting was an eye-opening exemplar of democracy in action, and in some
cases, democracy run off the tracks.
The Pennsylvania Sunshine Act
(also known as the Open Meetings Law) requires the commissioners to deliberate
and take official actions on county business in an open and public
meeting. It requires that meetings have
prior notice and that the public can attend, participate and comment before the
county takes the official actions.
Specifically, Washington County residents and taxpayers have the right
to comment on issues “that are or may be before the board.”
The commissioners are permitted
to establish rules to oversee public comment to avoid a chaotic French
Revolution style “free-for-all” from disgruntled residents. In Washington
County a sign-up sheet with appropriate identification is required and a
three-minute limit on each speaker’s presentation has been established. In the
interest of time and to avoid full-blown debate without proper deliberation,
the commissioners do not respond to
residents during the comment period. They do follow up with appropriate action
when a valid issue is disclosed during public comment.
In normal times, the above process well served Washington
County and other governing bodies throughout the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, these are not normal
times. Since the “stop-the-steal”
crusade erupted following Trump’s 2020 defeat, a small but vocal cadre of
residents have made it their mission to challenge and decertify the election
results in Washington County.
These
individuals appeared to be well coordinated when making public comments. Some attacked the county voting machines as
untrustworthy.
Others
attacked the manner in which votes were tabulated and demanded an expensive
forensic audit. Still others focused on the discredited theories of “election
expert” Douglas Frank, who personally addressed our county officials several
weeks ago. Most remarks appeared to be a rehash of comments from previous
meetings. Over the past year, Commissioners Diana Irey Vaughn and Larry Maggi
have discovered there is no way to satisfy these unproven demands short of
taking steps to illegally decertify the 2020 county election.
A second occurrence took place during the public comment
period that was further removed from the
intended purpose of permitting rational input from concerned citizens. Two Row
Office officials, known for their hostility against the commissioners, signed
up to speak as private citizens. Each used their allotted three minutes to
level personal attacks that had little to do with the business before the
board. Their comments were embarrassing, derogatory, disrespectful and
defamatory. The only possible explanation for such an outrageous display would
be to use these outbursts as fodder for their social media or as a political
tool to remove those commissioners with whom they disagree.
What transpired contradicts the purpose of open meeting
public comments. These Row Office officials should be banned from participating
at future commissioner meetings as private citizens. This would not be
discriminatory because these members of county government are in a position to
make their views known through press releases, news conferences and political
advertising. Their objective in speaking is not to discuss an issue on the
meeting agenda. It is to attack the leadership of the county in the hope of replacing
them in the next election cycle.
The last speaker in support of the “stop the steal” movement
had the only new information of the day to report to the commissioners. At the end of her comments she smiled and
informed them she had a message from “election expert” Douglas Frank who has
begun his own vicious attack against the commissioners. The commissioners were
warned to be very concerned that Mr. Frank had acquired “all of their digital
information including sign-ins and passwords.” This was a thinly veiled threat,
which, in my humble legal opinion, may be criminal.
I
came away from the meeting conflicted over whether the better response would be
to ignore the misinformed repetitious barrage or to rebut it head-on with
public statements supporting Washington County’s election process and
discrediting the maverick Row Office speakers. In favor of the first approach,
if few county citizens are paying attention to this nonsense, it may be prudent
not to give it further attention. The second approach has the advantage of
publically speaking the truth to such patently false positions and outrageous
conduct. Whatever the resolution of this charade, under no circumstances should
either the voter fraud adherents or the outlaw public officials who seek to discredit
the commissioners receive any further concessions. Enough is enough.
When
the public comment period was completed, almost all of the observers cleared
the boardroom and took their talking points out to the foyer. With few
spectators looking on, the meeting room returned to the formal civility it
deserves. The commissioners could finally get down to the important county
agenda items they were elected to address and to resolve.
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