At Wednesday's meeting of the Torrance County Planning and Zoning Board, county attorney Adolfo Mendez gave a presentation to the board regarding the Open Meeting Act. The Open Meeting Act is New Mexico's sunshine law that outlines how government bodies are to do business in the open view of the public. (Click here for video)
Planning and Zoning board members were advised by counsel that they should only rely on information provided by staff and information offered by applicants during open meetings to render decisions. The board was specifically advised to avoid doing their own investigations on matters to be acted upon by the board. Rolling quorums were also discussed as well as a rather lengthy dissertation on the merits of disallowing public comment at meetings without a person requesting to be on the agenda itself.
Based on the last County Commission meeting, this could have been an honest topic for clarification to the members of the Planning and Zoning board or yet another well orchestrated justification for actions by the Torrance County Commission to put a plug in the flow of information coming from the county building.
The proof will be in the pudding, or rather the format of Torrance County Meeting Agendas - will the 2 minuet public comment section of the Torrance County Commission be removed from their meeting format? Will Planning and Zoning agenda's remove public input for or against action items? And if so, as a public, are you comfortable speaking off record to the elected officials, their appointee's and staff?
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