Litchfield School Board members regularly tout their efforts to be transparent in decision making and policy setting.
That’s why it was so surprising — and disappointing — when board members used a secret ballot to choose a chairman during their Jan. 9 meeting.
Board members debated and voted in public during the past year on divisive issues of COVID-19 — masking policies and remote learning. They discussed and voted publicly on scheduling a bond referendum that could fund construction of a new swimming pool that would be part of a joint recreation-wellness center, known as Litchfield Area Recreation Center.
And then, for some inexplicable reason, they decided to hold a secret vote on who would become the next board chairman.
The annual reorganizational meeting started with Chairman Darrin Anderson announcing he would not seek the chair, a position he said he had proudly held for six years. Anderson deftly led the board through significant challenges, changes and successes during his tenure — including the challenges mentioned above, as well as the successful passage of a $33.8 million bond referendum that saw significant renovation and improvement at all three of the district’s schools.
But in his final act as chairman, he led the board to break the law.
It was Anderson’s duty as acting chairman to accept nominations for his replacement, which he did, accepting Marcia Provencher’s nomination for Julie Pennertz, and Michelle Falling’s nomination of Alex Carlson.
All good and legal. Until, that is, Anderson asked for board members to write their choice for chairman on slips of paper, which were collected for tabulation. After receiving the slips of paper from the board minutes secretary, and after shuffling through them himself, Anderson announced Carlson as the new chairman, on a 4-2 vote.
I don’t believe board members had any malicious intent. In fact, in a social media post late last week, Falling called it a mistake. And in a response to an email I sent to Anderson seeking comment, he also said it was an error — which the board plans to correct at its next meeting, Jan. 23.
I’m pleased to learn there’s a plan to rectify this mistake. But I’m left wondering if anyone would have acknowledged they broke the law if it had not been pointed out to them.
What I’m also curious about is, why the decision to go to a secret ballot? That wasn’t just a mistake, it was illegal.
The state’s Open Meeting Law forbids secret ballots such as that.
It should not have been a surprise to any of the six board members. Their agenda packet included a four-page list of instructions detailing how to conduct election of officers. About a third of the way down the first page, there is this sentence:
“State statutes are silent as to the method of electing officers, except that the election must be by open vote and not by any form of secret ballot. (M.S. 13D.01, Subd.4)”
That’s right, the only exception in a wide open plan to elect board officials — don’t do it in secret.
It’s disappointing board members had not all read their board packets ahead of the meeting to know the legal procedure. It’s disappointing not one school board member or school district official including the superintendent paused to question the idea of a public body voting in secret.
If transparency truly is as important to board members as it has been suggested during previous meetings, why entertain the suggestion of a secret ballot of any kind, ever?
It’s a question I hope the Litchfield School Board takes seriously as they move past this error of judgment.
The public, the community deserves and is owed better.
