Republican-controlled Nassau legislature fails on transparency again

                                                                             

Meeting notice for the Nassau Legislature posted on legislature's webpage at 1 p.m. Sunday

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This may seem like nit-picking but transparency is all the rage in government these days. Transparency in government means making government's business public.

Then we have the Republican-controlled Nassau County Legislature.

At 1:08 p.m. Sunday, the County Legislature's webpage features a notice that the next county legislative meeting is May 9 at 1 p.m., the usual legislative meeting time. (See above). May 9 was two weeks ago.

Yet, there is a county legislative meeting tomorrow, but not at 1 p.m.  and not in the county legislative chamber in Mineola. It is meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the county's Museum of American Armor at 1303 Round Swamp Rd, in Old Bethpage.

And only 200 people can attend.

How is the general public supposed to know that? Unless they click on a link for the legislative meeting schedule and scroll through 2022 to find there is, in fact, a meeting scheduled on May 23.

Then they can click on the link labeled "meeting calendars" to find the May 23 agenda.

There, you will find notice of the off-premises meeting.

It mentions that only 200 seats will be available at the Museum, similar to the 200 seats available in Mineola.

How is anyone except those "in the know" supposed to figure this out? The average member of the public will see that notice on the top of the legislative webpage and assume there is no meeting tomorrow.

If someone actually looks at the agenda and clicks on Resolution 93, they will find the legislature is being asked to approve all county employees and officers who must file financial disclosures this year, as listed in the attached Appendix A.

There is no Appendix A attached.

Not even a list of titles, much less names.

So apparently members of the public have to guess what taxpayer-funded public officials must publicly disclose possible conflicts of interest this year.

The Republican-controlled legislature has been tardy before in letting the public know what they're up to...putting out notices that list the wrong time for meetings and sometimes leaving old meeting notices up on its website even as a new meeting is going on.

But transparency is transparency.