Barrow County responded on Wednesday to a citizen who filed a petition back in October claiming that the county violated the Georgia Open Meetings Act.
In the county’s response, they effectively denied most claims Alecia Behlog made against them.
Those claims by Behlog came from a July 8 meeting regarding the addition of a vague cost reimbursement item to the meeting’s agenda right before the approval of the agenda. The item ended up being the full divestment from the School Resource Officer (SRO) program beginning in the 2026-2027 fiscal year.
“The reasons are unclear, but it’s definitely clear that it’s a decision that they tried to make quietly,” Behlog told AccessWDUN back in October. “It’s a decision that affects not only every citizen and our right to access our government, but every students’ safety and every taxpayers’ trust as well.”
In the county’s response, they said that their commission’s rules of procedure “speak for themselves.”
Ward allegedly began with comments at the July 8 meeting advocating for public awareness on the item.
During that, Commissioner Alex Ward was interrupted by Commissioner Lynn. Chairperson Graham then interrupted Lynn and Ward, and when Ward began to speak again Lynn said “Excuse me, Commissioner Ward, we all kind of know where everyone stands on this issue … The Chairman confirms that the motion is a Call to Question Motion.”
The county confirmed that the quoted portion from Lynn was accurate, but said that they “lack knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief … of the allegations” in Behlog’s filing claiming the motion was used to stop debate.
The county also denied throughout their response that any exhibits were attached, although Behlog included an exhibit index in her original filing.
The county did admit that Behlog made an attempt to resolve the alleged violation administratively, but that the “contents of statutes speak for themselves.”
Behlog’s original filing included three counts. Count one was for failure by the county to abide by the Georgia Open Meetings Act, count two was for failure by the county to make true statements to government agencies, and count three was for failure by the county to abide by the code of ethics for government service.
The county denied any wrongdoing for all three counts.
The county wants the petition dropped in its entirety, and Behlog has 30 days to respond.
The post Barrow County files response to citizen who claims they violated open meeting laws appeared first on AccessWdun.
