Also there, but still early, were several Board members that I recognized, Dr. Thornburg, Dr. Kennedy (all attractive in her little black dress), CCC staff members, the waitresses still setting the table, and a few others that I did not recognize. I had entered one side of the Boardroom and exited out the other end, circled back around to the reception area where others were coming in for the meeting. I met Ginger Bullock, Mike Falls, Patsy Rose, Dr. Dale Guffey and others as they were coming in to attend the Board meeting.
It was totally obvious that nobody at CCC was expecting “visitors” to their Board Meeting. It was obvious that there was not enough seating in the Board Room for many visitors in the first place. It was obvious that the 12 Noon time scheduled for the Board meeting was actually the time the Board was going to sit down for their fancy, almost formal, meal.
All us visitors got to watch the straggler Board members come in and get ready for their fancy meal. The covers were taken off the serving trays and I got a first hand view of what was on the menu. Large round and thick meat loaf cakes, broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes with gravy, rolls and peach cobbler for dessert. The meeting was scheduled for exactly 12 noon, but exactly at 12 noon the Board of Trustees, Thornburg, Kennedy, other CCC Staff and an invited visitor from the State Community College Agency began their meal. All us lowly citizens and taxpayers got to wait outside. But we were polite and nobody wanted to be rude and go inside while the muckedy-mucks were eating their fine meal. For a bit anyway.
I got to thinking about all this. State law clearly states that all public business must be conducted in the open. It is called The Sunshine Law. And when a majority of agency board members get together to conduct business, members of the public are allowed to attend. So I thought, what, besides the law, was to stop this Board of Trustees from conducting their business during this fancy meal? Nothing!!! And this Board didn’t much follow state law anyway in the way they conduct their business. If they had, all the mess at CCC would have been cleared up years ago.
So, at 12:20pm and the mucks were still eating, I quietly went into the Board Room and took a seat at the far end of the room. And sure enough, just a few minutes later, I hear the meeting being called to order at the other end of the table. To hear better I take my folding chair to the other end of the room in an obvious display that I intended to hear what was going on. About that time, Board Member Allen Langley, to his credit, suggested to Chairman Greg Melton that all the other visitors (members of the public) be invited into the Board Room. About 15 people file in, more seats were brought in and the meeting resumed.
