Thread by @RosiePalfy

Tomorrow @CleCityCouncil will hold a caucus meeting at noon. The agenda does not list discussion items. The meeting will NOT be live-streamed on YouTube or TV 20. I spent the day doing research to find a loophole to explain council’s lack of transparency. I COULD NOT FIND ONE.

I’m going to share what I learned in the hope that #Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin will reconsider this practice. I’m asking @Griff4CLE6 to publish a full agenda & livestream the meeting. I believe there’s been an honest misinterpretation of Ohio’s Sunshine Laws.

This is going to take a while. I’m asking everyone following this🧵to please be polite & refrain from swearing because it’s not going to help. I want to state the obvious upfront. I am NOT an attorney & I don’t play one on 📺. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here we go…

I spent the entire day researching Cleveland City Council’s rules, news releases & press releases. I read news stories, Ohio’s Sunshine☀️ Laws, as well as old notes & Twitter🐥threads from numerous @cledocumenters. I believe @CleCityCouncil is violating the Open Meetings Act.

Both @MayorBibb & @Griff4CLE6 pledged transparency when they each assumed office. On January 3, #Cleveland City Council approved new council rules for 2022-2025. clevelandcitycouncil.org/resources/news…

The Rules Committee is chaired by Council President Griffin. Committee Members include Council Members: @kevinconwell216, @KerryMcCormack1, @rebecca__maurer & Mike Polensek. clevelandcitycouncil.org/council/commit…

The Rules of @CleCityCouncil details procedures for council meeting, standing committees, special meetings & emergency meetings. But it does not address caucus meetings. The word “caucus” isn’t mentioned once in the 20-page document. clevelandcitycouncil.org/sites/default/…

What is a caucus? Here’s how Merriam-Webster defines a caucus:👇

Ballotpedia defines a caucus as “a political party gathering in which party members choose candidates for an election.🗳
ballotpedia.org/Caucus

The first @CleCityCouncil “caucus” meeting under @Griff4CLE6’s leadership was held on January 31. It was broadcast live on @TV20Cleveland. According to notes & tweets from @cledocumenters, he said meetings would be held on the last Monday of the month. cleveland.documenters.org/assignments/ci…

January 31, 2022 Cleveland City Council Caucus meeting

These are a few screenshots from @cledocumenters Carolyn Cooper’s notes. cleveland.documenters.org/assignments/ci…

This @cledocumenters live-tweet thread🧵 is by Keith Yurgionas (a.k.a. @DocumenterK). Council President @Griff4CLE6 said: "We are not voting in this setting, but we did decide to @TV20Cleveland is that we want to be transparent as a Council." cleveland.documenters.org/documents/live… 👇

There was not a caucus meeting in February. But 2 caucus meetings were held in March & they were NOT live-streamed. #CLECityCouncil

Stay Tuned‼️

I will finish this thread🧵 later when I have time. The bottom line is that these @CleCityCouncil caucus meetings appear to be “special meetings” which require disclosure of the meeting’s purpose. #SunshineLaws☀️ #OpenMeetingsAct

Here’s a link to the 2022 Ohio Sunshine Laws manual. It explains the Public Records Act & Open Meetings Act laws. The manual is published annually by the Ohio Attorney General.👇
ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Files/Publicat… #OpenGovernment #SunshineLaws☀️

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