Several Baltimore County Council members said yesterday that the school board's decision to renew Joe A. Hairston's contract behind closed doors was inappropriate and undermines public confidence in its actions.
The councilmen criticized the board for not inviting public comment on the important decision, and they said the board should have at least given notice.
"This is no way for a public board to do business, and it only creates doubt in the public mind," said Councilman T. Bryan McIntire, a north county Republican.
Council President Kevin Kamenetz, a Pikesville-Ruxton Democrat, said there are legitimate reasons to meet behind closed doors, but "the idea is to give the public notice."
"It's important to receive community input before making such a decision. The idea is to create confidence in the process, and anything that creates suspicions does not engender confidence," Kamenetz said.
The school board appears to have violated Maryland's Open Meetings Act by failing to give notice and take minutes of the 90-minute closed session, which took place May 29 at the district's hilltop headquarters at Greenwood in Towson.
Under the law, public bodies are permitted to discuss personnel matters in closed session. School board members said they believed at the time that notice of the meeting had been given and that they were meeting legally to discuss a personnel matter.
"The doors were wide open, and I thought everybody knew because there were people moving through the building," said James E. Walker, a board member. The meeting wasn't held in the board's usual meeting room; it was in a room in the same building where Hairston and other top school officials have their offices.
School Board President Donald L. Arnold said Tuesday and Wednesday that he had announced the May 29 meeting at a board meeting May 27, but a check of that session's videotape showed no announcement of the meeting was made.
In a statement yesterday, Arnold said that the Open Meetings Act does not apply because the board was evaluating Hairston's performance, which is exempt under the law.
Bill Varga, an assistant attorney general who works with issues involving the Open Meetings Act, agreed that "performance evaluations are exempt."
But emphasizing that he was speaking generally, Varga said, "If you're considering extending my contract, and part of that discussion is considering my performance, that's not the same thing."
He said discussions about extending a contract naturally include talk about performance, and the Open Meetings Act applies to those discussions because contract talks are involved.
The school board has not finished drafting the criteria for its yearly "performance evaluation" of the superintendent, members said Wednesday, and the board has not conducted its evaluation.
Baltimore County's school board isn't the only one in the area accused of meeting behind closed doors.
Howard County's board is facing a lawsuit accusing it of often meeting secretly an hour before public meetings. Anne Arundel County's, on the other hand, faxes announcements of closed sessions to the press.
"Any time we meet in executive session, we make sure we notify," said Michael McNelly, the board's president.
The Baltimore County board's secret meeting was its second this year. The 13-member board split into two groups during budget planning in January to avoid a quorum that would have triggered the Open Meetings Act.
"We've always voiced our concern over them having secret meetings and violating the state's sunshine law, but it doesn't seem like our concern bothers them because they keep doing it," said Councilman Joseph Bartenfelder, a Fullerton Democrat.
McIntire said it was "inappropriate" for the board to choose to rehire the superintendent behind closed doors.
"It creates a distrust in the public eye when things are done under the table, which is exactly what happened," McIntire said.
Damian O'Doherty, spokesman for County Executive James T. Smith Jr., said: "This is a board issue, and we're looking forward to the board's explanation."
Michael P. Kennedy, a school board member, said the board needed to talk privately with Hairston so it could frankly discuss the direction of the school system and his stewardship.
Kennedy, who said he thought notice had been given, also challenged complaints that the board had lost public confidence, saying parents know that members are devoted to serving Baltimore County's children.
"It's not like people can't trust us," he said. "Most of what the board does is positive and is done in the best interest of kids."
Sun staff writers Tricia Bishop and Laura Loh contributed to this article.
