(Louisiana Illuminator) - There have been some important developments in Louisiana higher education in recent weeks, including LSU firing its football coach, replacing its athletics director and hiring a new system president and chancellor.
One you could have missed was the first meeting of the committee that will guide the University of New Orleans’ move from the University of Louisiana System to the LSU System. You might not have been aware because LSU neglected to follow the state’s Open Meetings Law and post the required public notice 24 hours before the group met on the UNO campus Nov. 5y.
It wasn’t until Illuminator reporter Piper Hutchinson contacted LSU that the school posted the notice online around 4 p.m. the day before; that’s 17 hours before the meeting started , if you’re keeping track.
The only time public bodies, which include the UNO transition committee, can skirt the 24-hour notice rule is in the event of an emergency, according to attorney Scott Sternberg, who often represents the news media in cases involving open meetings, public records and other First Amendment concerns.
“The right to observe meetings of the government is in the Constitution. That means it’s one of our most important rights,” Sternberg said. “In theory, the meeting could be completely annulled based on the failure to notify.”
The meeting did take place, and it revealed LSU’s continued struggle to grasp the Open Meetings Law.
Rico Alvendia, the LSU Board of Supervisors member who’s chairing the UNO transition committee, told the dozens of members gathered they should meet privately in assigned workgroups in the coming weeks to come up with recommendations for the full committee to consider.
This, too, would be a violation of state law.
“A subgroup or a working group, or whatever you like, if it’s a division of a larger public body, that’s a committee” that must adhere to the Open Meetings Law, Sternberg said.
In attendance at the meeting was Trey Jones, LSU’s general counsel. The university’s top attorney told the Illuminator he didn’t consider the subcommittees subject to the law.
“It’s a little different,” Jones said. “We’re relying on expertise of people, and not so much a committee that’s gathering its own information in an open setting, voting on what to bring to this committee.”
“These work groups will come up and bring things that will either be rejected or accepted by the larger group,” he added.
That sounds just like a legislative committee, or the subcommittee of any policymaking public body that considers proposals and then advances them to the group as a whole for further deliberations. And as much as Jones might want to consider the UNO transition committee’s plans an informal spitballing session, state law doesn’t allow such informality.
UNO and its future under the LSU System might not directly impact you, but there’s cause for concern when the state’s Open Meetings Law is so casually overlooked. LSU is easily one of the state’s most powerful institutions, with the governor hand-picking its board and routinely weighing in on leadership decisions.
Transparency should be paramount with so much at stake in terms of public resources and the school that helped build the New Orleans workforce.
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Greg LaRose has covered news for more than 30 years in Louisiana. Before coming to the Louisiana Illuminator, he was the chief investigative reporter for WDSU-TV in New Orleans. He previously led the government and politics team for The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com, and was editor in chief at New Orleans CityBusiness. Greg's other career stops include Tiger Rag, South Baton Rouge Journal, the Covington News Banner, Louisiana Radio Network and multiple radio stations.
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