Despite an opinion from the

Georgia Attorney General's office saying their executive session votes

are illegal, the Fayette County Commission decided Friday to keep doing

business as usual. That means the board will continue voting during sessions

closed to the public.

Commissioner A.G. VanLandingham

has asked for the item to be on the County Commission's retreat agenda

and said he had investigated how other governments conducted their executive

sessions.

"We're more open than

everyone else," VanLandingham said.

The only change VanLandingham

wanted to see was the commission change the executive session to before

the meeting at 6 p.m.

"Years ago, that's how

they did it here," he said.

He said if the commission needed

to vote on an item, it could then vote on the item during the regular

meeting.

But Chairman Greg Dunn said

that could create even more problems for the board.

"I just think then that

people would think we were deciding on what we going to do during the

regular meeting. We are the most law-abiding government around,"

he said.

Dunn also said if the executive

session ran more than an hour before the meeting, citizens would show

up for the 7 p.m. meeting and wonder why the board had not started the

meeting.

"That would look even

more suspicious," he said.

The procedure surrounding how

the county conducts executive sessions first popped up this summer when

Tyrone City Councilman Ronnie Cannon said the board conducted numerous

illegal votes behind closed doors.

In October, the state's senior

assistant Attorney General sided with Cannon.

"This office continues

to believe that votes on matters that may be discussed in executive session

should be held in the open portion of the meeting, except where there

is a specific statutory exception for the votes," senior assistant

Attorney General Kathryn Allen wrote.

She pointed out the exception

is specific for personnel items, but "the absence of a specific provision

in the real estate or attorney advice exception does not mean that those

votes must be held in secret."

The County Commission instructed

staff to time how long their upcoming executive sessions lasted. If the

sessions lasted more than an hour, they will continue to hold executive

sessions after the regular meeting.

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