The Distressed Unit Appeal Board and Gary Community School Corp. emergency manager Peggy Hinckley did not violate the open door law by meeting with Gary School Board members to update them on district information, according to the state’s Public Access Counselor Luke H. Britt.
Because the school board no longer can take official action by virtue of a state takeover law, “it is a legal impossibility that the Board would be in violation of the ODL…” wrote Britt in his recent opinion.
Britt wrote that no evidence exists the DUAB or its agents coerced or forced the school board to conduct a serial meeting.
The Open Door Law complaint filed was filed in October by Gary attorney Clorius Lay on behalf of Gary resident Derrick A. Hill. Lay also filed a lawsuit in Lake Superior Court on behalf of Hill seeking a declaratory judgment to halt the meetings.
Lay is also the school board’s appointee to the fiscal advisory board, which the state takeover law established to advise Hinckley.
Lay disagreed with Britt’s conclusion. “I think he’s wrong,” Lay said Friday.
Lay maintains the school board members were forced to violate the Open Door Law by participating in the meetings.
Earlier, Hinckley said it was the consensus of legal advisers that the takeover law limited the school board to one meeting a month so she offered to meet with board members individually once a month, to discuss their concerns.
Britt wrote: “The update sessions were not an intentional subversion of the law nor were they conducted with the purpose of undermining transparency.”
Britt recommended the update sessions by Hinckley be limited to groups of two or less, “thereby eliminating the perception of non-compliance, even if none legally exists.”
Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
