Town of Hartsville

The Town Board went into a questionable executive session, but, never fear, Bob Freeman's on the case: HARTSVILLE ACCEPTS FIRE CONTRACT:

The Hartsville town board begrudgingly accepted a fire and ambulance contract with the Village of Canisteo, but a bigger issue was a 10-minute executive session in the middle of Wednesday night's meeting.

Deputy Supervisor Gene Garrison called for an executive session at 7:55 p.m. to “make sure we're on track for the rest of the meeting.” Resident Steve Dombert told Garrison he didn't believe that was an approved reason, but wasn't going to make a big deal about it.

“But there are nine reasons, and this doesn't sound like it passes muster,” Dombert said.
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Nonetheless, Garrison and councilpersons Jim Perry and Mattie Parini voted to enter executive session. The board emerged from one of the offices at the town hall about 10 minutes later, having taken no action, Garrison said.

According to Robert Freeman, New York state Dept. of State Committee on Open Government executive director, it is clearly spelled out for which purposes a board may enter an executive session.

“The point is simple, a town board or public body cannot enter into an executive session for just anything,” he said. “The law specifies and limits what can be considered private.

“It's the Tracy Chapman principle,” Freeman added, referring to the singer. “‘Baby just give me one reason,' but it's implicit in that it needs to be one good reason.”