GRAY – The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners is forming its bylaws. Indeed, it should be reforming how it operates.

Our nation’s Constitution contains obscure rules discussing letters of marque, ex post facto laws, bills of retainder and habeas corpus. Eventually, you get to the Bill of Rights and recognize the importance of self-imposed limits to power.

The new county charter, approved by both the voters and the state, gives the board of commissioners wide powers. Its first-ever bylaws should emphasize the commissioners’ responsibilities to the public.

The charter allows for “emergency” electronic meetings. While well-intentioned, this would appear to violate the Maine Freedom of Access Act. At a minimum, the bylaws should require the commissioners to invite the media to participate in such “emergency” electronic proceedings, whether by email, telephone, Skype or Facebook.

The bylaws should reaffirm the board’s commitment to the spirit of the Freedom of Access Act, which requires that discussions of public matters among decision-makers take place in public, rather than through email, telephone or hallway conversations.

There are many other ways to craft the bylaws to put the people first, foster public involvement, encourage transparency and engender public trust.

The commissioners should adopt an ethics rule that requires annual disclosure of all personal income sources (although not dollar amounts). Rules don’t make officials incorruptible, but they codify virtuous behavior and make it easier to be honest.

The bylaws should require earlier and wider distribution of agendas and all supporting documents, in a searchable format, including draft minutes within 48 hours after every meeting. Greater advance notice of meetings would encourage citizens to attend and offer input, which is a rare occurrence.

In fact, the bylaws should require that all public documents not otherwise protected by privacy laws be searchable online by the public.

The bylaws should require that video of all commissioner and committee meetings be available on the county website for five years.

The commissioners should establish an ombudsman to hear appeals of “customer service” complaints by the public about county government, not to resolve legal issues or lawsuits but simply to ensure that the county is listening to citizen input about how it operates.

The bylaws should prevent the appointment of commissioners’ relatives to committees.

The bylaws should bar commissioners from abstaining from votes, except in the case of conflicts of interest as defined in state law. Commissioners should be held responsible for making decisions, not just attending meetings.

The commissioners are not required to get approval from the voters to raise property taxes, even under Maine’s Tax Levy Limit Act. As compensation, the commission should adopt a bylaw that requires the board to submit tax increases above 5 percent to the people.

Changes to the bylaws themselves should require four affirmative votes after publication of the proposed text. Like the Bill of Rights, bylaws are intended to protect a minority of the board, preventing the subversion of democracy. If it is too easy to suspend the rules, then it is too easy to suppress a troublesome board member.

The bylaws should make it difficult to schedule special meetings that a board member is known to be unable to attend. Meetings should be held on a fixed schedule and in the evenings in order to encourage average citizens to attend.

The bylaws should require periodic review of the county charter. Further, the commissioners should recommend immediate changes to improve transparency and accountability.

The “emergency electronic” meetings clause is of doubtful legality and should be repealed or tightly controlled. The charter should also be amended to provide a mechanism for filling a commissioner vacancy, rather than forcing a district’s 50,000 citizens to go unrepresented for up to four years. Perhaps even citizen-initiative and people’s-veto provisions should be considered.

The county does not need to re-invent Robert’s Rules of Order. It needs to be bold and inspirational.

The current members of the board of commissioners are all respected, dedicated public servants. But the good guys are the ones who should put rules into place to protect us from those who may follow.

Mark D. Grover of Gray has been a member of the Cumberland County Budget Advisory Committee and the Gray Town Council. He ran for county commissioner in 2011.

 

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