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Hernando Today

Meals are lessons in civility

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By TONY MARRERO Hernando Today

The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 23, 2009

BROOKSVILLE - After a tense school board workshop Tuesday afternoon that included a failed attempt to oust Superintendent Wayne Alexander, three board members and a spouse climbed into the school board attorney's Chrysler 300.

They headed south from the school district headquarters on Broad Street to the new Beef 'O' Brady's on the State Road 50 bypass. They noshed on burgers and chicken wraps. No beer, though. They had to get back for a regular school board meeting at 7 p.m., and it was expected to be a doozy - the local teachers union planned to rally against staffing cuts approved last month.

Despite everything that was going on businesswise, this was a social gathering like any other for board Chairwoman Dianne Bonfield and members Pat Fagan and Sandra Nicholson, board members said Wednesday in recounting the excursion.

Board members have for years gone out to eat on days when there is a break between an afternoon workshop and evening meeting, board members said. The Greek eatery Mykonos is another popular choice, and former school board member Jim Malcolm loved Taco Bell, Bonfield recalled.

Sometimes, Superintendent Wayne Alexander joins them.

"We don't talk about business," Fagan said. "We know what the Sunshine Law is."

Enacted in 1967 to ensure public oversight and participation in government decisions, the open government statues known as the Sunshine Laws prohibit two or more elected officials from communicating on policy issues unless it is in a public meeting.

But the law does not prohibit officials from getting together socially as long as they don't talk about official duties or issues.

Paul Carland, the board's attorney, often comes along and will speak up if board members start to enter dangerous territory, Fagan said. That's rarely, if ever, necessary, Bonfield said.

"We're very careful," she said.

Carland agreed Wednesday, saying that's happened only a couple of times at most. He said he comes for social reasons, not as a watchman.

"I do not chaperone the board," Carland said. "They know their responsibilities under the Sunshine Law."

Joe Vitalo, president of the Hernando Classroom Teachers Association, has attended some of the meals and said the board typically talks about vacations or national politics, never local issues.

"They're pretty clean about that," Vitalo said. "It's out in the open, and we're very careful about our conversations."

The ability to sit down at the dinner table together is a sign of the board's collegial relationship and an ability to put differences aside once the gavel signals the end of a meeting, board members said.

Fagan, for example, supported Alexander's termination, saying his job search had become a distraction for the district. Bonfield and Nicholson supported Alexander.

That collegiality can be a benefit, said Adria Harper, director of the First Amendment Foundation of Florida, which specializes in open government issues.

"We do want our public officials to have good camaraderie," Harper said. "A lot of times it's more efficient when they get along and interact."

Still, the public can't be blamed for having a healthy dose of skepticism, and those questions come up a lot, Harper said.

"People say, 'You're telling us we have to trust our public officials that they're not going to discuss public issues out of the sunshine,' and I say basically, yes, unless they give you a reason not to," she said.

Sometimes, she said, "the skepticism is very much warranted."

News archives are packed with stories of public officials getting fined or even booted out of office for violating the law. Among them: then-Hernando County School Board member Diane Rowden was fined $322 and suspended from office for talking privately about public business with another board member.

Public officials bent on talking business on the sly typically do so in places not so public as a Beef 'O' Brady's, Harper said. It's usually a reporter or "savvy citizen" who picks up on signs of secret meetings, such as two board members disagreeing on an issue during one public meeting and then "magically agreeing" at the next, she said.

But even officials who have innocent regular social gatherings are wise to keep something in mind, she said.

"They have to remember that people are paying attention," he said.

The public can do more than just pay attention, Bonfield said.

"Anyone who wants to join us, they're always welcome," she said. "We'll just get a bigger table."

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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