Have a closed meeting? Pay the price!!!!

OK, so for my money, this is enough for the Columbia Association or any such organization to change its status and not be considered a class of an organization that could be considered "public".  All you have to do is to read this blog post and you'll see what I mean.

So under this proposed legislation, public groups that hold closed meetings that they shouldn't could be fined up to $10,000.  A hefty price to pay to be suree, and an appropriate one.

But thinking back over my history of interactions with the CA Board of Directors, the Board of Education, even the County Council, I can think of people (especially a recent deposed BOE member) who would have a field day with this proposed legislation.  Which, I'm pretty sure will become law.

I really havenm't written much on CA's proposed change in legal status, other than to say that I like it.  As homeowners' associations go, it is a very unique animal among its kind in Maryland.  It's basically a whale in a school of tuna.  But as a different type of organization, CA wouldn't be subject to this legislation.  Which, for me, is an acceptable thing because the definition of a CA meeting that could be subject to open meetings could be pretty broad.  And a large organization like CA could very realistically blunder into violating the Open Meetings Act by mistake.

Comments

[b.santos]

MM, historically, the Maryland Open Meetings Act has never applied to HOA's. Although there is language in the Maryland HOA Act about open meetings, it is not tied to the Open Meetings Act. Does the new legislation change this?