To the editor:
During the most recent BOC closed session (March 3, 2014), minutes were approved by majority vote for the Feb.17 closed session. Hopefully Attorney Jana Berg will soon give her approval so that these minutes can be released to the public.
Regarding my having publicly commented on the closed session of Feb. 17, I have commented only on the procedural parts of this closed session, not on the actual issue on which the county attorney was seeking BOC guidance.
I stand by my assertion that I was “kicked out” of the Feb. 17 closed session for the following reasons:
1. The other four commissioners refused to discuss the issue that was before us in my presence, even after I had expressed my own opinion on that issue in front of everyone.
2. As the approved minutes of the Feb. 17 closed session now show, Commissioners Keith Holbert, Owens, Pack and Gage decided to conduct business in a way that is outside of recognized closed session procedures. Specifically, as proposed by commissioner Pack and approved by Owens, Gage and Holbert,  chair Owens and attorney Berg moved to the next room and then had one commissioner at a time join them to give his opinion to Berg with Owens serving as a witness. There is no known legal means to conduct business in that manner in an official closed session. Had I stayed, I would have been condoning closed session procedures that are possibly illegal.
The two-fold effect of Pack’s proposal was to freeze me out of what should have been a full and open discussion, and to subvert closed session rules and procedures. In my opinion, any direction that attorney Berg received from this closed session was severely compromised.
– Ray Gasperson,
Green Creek