HOT SPRINGS VILLAGE ALERT

Hot Springs Village Director’s Sink Deeper Into Their Own Ineptness

Once again, a majority of the Village directors go behind closed doors to hide decisions that they are making, or plan to make. This situation is way out of hand and needs to be confronted.
If the board had a parliamentarian, he or she should rule the board out of order when attempting to hide behind closed doors to do business clearly not in line with the Open Meetings Act.  If there is no appointed parliamentarian, the board President should.

Not being a municipality, I'm assuming they figure they don't have to follow the open meetings act. And they apparently are not following their own policy adopted in 2012 regarding open meetings. There are clear reasons when an elected body can go into closed session. And they can NEVER take a vote in closed session. The board should adopt municipal rules regarding open and closed meetings, but it doesn't appear they are likely to do so. They don't want to bother letting us know what's going on until it is decided.  At any rate, the whole thing smells worse that the pump station at the beginning of our road on Asombroso.
 
The two new board members are siding with two others to create a majority voting for doing business in secret. What a shame. I thought Mary Neilson stated she would not support hiding behind closed doors when campaigning. At least that’s why I voted for her. (The two new members also voted to keep a left over Scott Randle policy in place that allows only 3 minutes for public comment). Frank Leeming and Jeff Atkins walked out of the last closed meeting being illegally called. I thank both of them for their courage and sense.

The board is deeply disappointing. I thought Keith Keck would be a much more open and less rigid president. So far, I was mistaken. A community that is not operated out in the open is a place where people are not going to want to live. The residents of the Village are a pretty competent group of people. I would not expect this kind of nonsense to be allowed to occur for much longer.

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