Published: October 06, 2008 12:02 am         

Few turn out for evening commission meetings

Allegany County officials say they’re trying to accommodate all citizens

CUMBERLAND — The Allegany County Commission meeting last Thursday was scheduled for its regular 11 a.m. time, a week after being moved to a 6 p.m. start to allow for anticipated public comment on the Mountainview Landfill contract proposal.

Only three county residents spoke about the issue — and, according to Steve Young, director of the Department of Public Works, there was little reason to expect a large crowd.

Young said before the meeting his office had received not a single phone call or e-mail about the proposal, which was first made public in early July. Young also said he wasn’t aware of any communication between the public and the commissioners’ office.

Commissioner Dale Lewis said he’d been approached by a handful of county residents who indicated a desire to attend a meeting and speak about the issue. Those people couldn’t make it to an 11 a.m. meeting, he said, and requested a later start time.

Those people failed to show up during the evening meeting. In hindsight, “we probably didn’t need that,” said Commission President Jim Stakem.

“I didn’t know for sure whether it’d be overwhelming (attendance) or not,” Stakem said. “Commissioner Lewis lives out that way. He wanted to make sure if someone had anything to say, they could say it. There may be other times when we’ll do that. I always consider evening meetings if I think it’s going to be necessary to have them.”

Commissioner Bob Hutcheson initially had a Maryland Association of Counties organization meeting. An officer and likely future president of MACO, Hutcheson said he asked for the meeting to be held at a later time. The agenda was relatively light that evening. It was Young’s third Mountainview Landfill presentation since early July — no one had commented publicly during the first two opportunities — and Hutcheson’s meeting was later canceled. Hutcheson said he felt it was too late to return the evening meeting to its original 11 a.m. start time.

Stakem said the original proposal for local the landfill off state Route 36 near Midland “was a controversial issue, and I guess that still lingers. We wanted to (address) any controversy out there before we moved (forward).”

Stakem said the commissioners held at least one evening meeting when gaming taxes were an issue. A former board of commissioners held an evening meeting once every quarter, Stakem said, and members noted the lack of attendance “to the point where it didn’t seem to make that much difference.”

“We kept hearing people wanted to come out in the evening and they didn’t come out,” Stakem said.

But the commissioners failed to take similar action when they decided 10 weeks ago to consider expanding the county Bureau of Police. They announced their intentions to conduct a feasibility study on the issue at their public meeting on July 24. Five days later, the idea of a study was discarded. The commissioners, in the form of a memorandum, issued an executive order that effectively transferred 14 sheriff’s deputies under the direction of the Bureau of Police, overseen by retired Maryland State Police Lt. Col. Gary Moore and retired Cumberland City Police Chief Bobby Dick.

The Allegany County Sheriff’s Office, meanwhile, was relegated to perform only its constitutionally defined powers. Road patrol duties, which the office had performed for more than 35 years, are now the responsibility of the Bureau of Police. The issue is still being fought in Washington County Circuit Court.

“Nobody requested” an evening meeting on the issue, Lewis said.

Stakem said the issue in late July was “different” and that the public did have its opportunity to speak out on the issue in a daytime public meeting which lasted more than four hours.

“I just know one thing,” Stakem said. “Before I was in office, some commissioners lost an election over the landfill. I didn’t know how people still feel.”

Stakem said he can’t think of any upcoming issues which could warrant an evening meeting.

“We receive requests all the time for public meetings in the evening,” Lewis said.

And even when the commissioners honor those requests, “it’s the same people” who attend, Hutcheson said, as in the daytime meetings.

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.