June 26, 2009 - Assateague Coastal Trust (ACT) has announced today that it has filed a complaint with the Maryland Open Meetings Compliance Board, through the state Attorney General’s office. The seven page Complaint, with four sets of exhibits attached, was filed to formally complain regarding actions taken by the Worcester County Commissioners on May 26, 2009 in closed session to consolidate three departments of Worcester County Government. ACTs contends that this meeting was in violation of the Maryland Open Meetings Act, and that the scope of the meeting and the decisions made therein fall outside any privilege or exclusion afforded to discussions regarding personnel matters, or matters of an administrative nature.

ACT has asked that the Compliance Board issue an opinion and finding that Commissioners’ actions on May 26, 2009 in closed session violated the Open Meetings Act.

In the Complaint, ACT notes the Commissioners apparently recognized the defects in their May 26, 2009 deliberations in closed session, as the County Commissioners attempted to cure the defect by voting on June 2 in regular meeting "to publicly confirm the actions taken during their May 26, 2009 closed session meeting".

ACT contends that this "confirmation," however, fails to cure the defects in the original vote, and does nothing to assure the public, or ACT, that governmental policymaking is being made in a transparent manner. Therefore, ACT has presented the issue to the Compliance Board as to whether the original vote in closed session violated the Open Meetings Act.