“They know they need to say transparency,” Say Burgin, a Dauphin County resident and community activist, said. But 'transparency is an action, not a word.”
Meyers is expected to investigate claims of misconduct by jail staff.
The commissioners voted to hire both Bey and Myers Wednesday morning during their weekly meeting, according to county spokesman Brett Hambright. Notice of the vote, however, was included in a generic line item titled “personnel packet.” That packet was not provided to the public before the board voted.
Commissioners in the past have included multiple line items appointing people to volunteer boards that include the person’s name and exact position. “The ‘pre-decisional’ argument flies in the face of the core purpose of the Sunshine Act, which is to expressly require pre-decisional deliberations to occur in public,” Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association Media Lawyer Melissa Melewsky said.
The Right to Know Law provides government agencies an exemption from releasing some documents related to how decisions were made but Melewsky said the law also expressly prohibits that exemption from being used for records that are discussed at public meetings. There was no mention of a director of criminal justice on any meeting agendas or minutes for the county commissioners last year., when the salary board voted to create the job opening. At the time, the pay was listed at $38.97 per hour, or roughly about $81,000 per year.
Advocates said they are angry that the county would hire someone to such an important position completely behind closed doors.
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