Evening star., 1951-10-06
County Press Pushes
Campaign for Open
Council Meetings

/ The Montgomery County Press
Association will continue it's CAM
paign for more freedom of infor-
nation from the County Council.
Next steps to be taken in an
attempt to have the council hold
fewer sessions behind closed doors
will be planned by the associa-
tons Executive Board. This was
lagreed to yesterday at a meeting
of the county press and radio rep
Iresentatives in Silver Spring yes
terday.
The issue was resolved to one
iof freedom of information"
rather than freedom of the
press" About two weeks ago the
council turned down the groups
request for more open meetings
and decided that the best interests
of the public would be served best
by continuing it's present policy
Iof holding both open and closed
sessions.
Must Stay Out of Politics.
Ernie Tannen of station WGAY,
president of the association, said,
Il was nailed recently by a mem
her of the Democratic Party who
lis hoping he can make an issue of
this quetsion. That might be all
right as a political matter but we
Should be very careful to keep out
of it,"
In a discussion that followed,
the concensus was that the asso-
ciation-with members of several
shades of political opinion-should
steer clear of projecting the issue
into politics but would aid giving
it prominence before the public.
Il think it should be made a
political football" said Phillip j..
Austensen of the Washington Post.
I'D like to know whether the,
Democratic or the Republican
candidates are going to hold open
meetings if elected. I agree that
we should not go into politics"
Mrs. Stella B. Werner, a men,
Der of the County Council who has
sought more open meetings. also
is member of the press group by
virtue of her weekly column in
the Bethesda Tribune. She said
she does not want to make the
issue political.
Mrs. Werner said that the
minutes of the regular closed ses-
sions of the council are made
available to the public after they
are approved one week later. She
acknowledged. however, that these
minutes usually do not reflect the
opinions of the various council
members on controversial sub
ject.
Mrs. Werner also claimed she
was unaware of the statement
issued in the name of the council
nearly two weeks ago in which
the council refused the request of
the press for more open meetings,
until just before the statement
was issued.
Ready to Propose Policy.
Il was prepared to offer a diff
ferent policy" Mrs. Werner said.
Just before the statement was
released Mr.. Council President
J. Louis Monarch handed copy
to me and said that was what We
agreed on. There was no vote
on it."
Joseph Brechner, also of WGAY,
declared, The policy of the coun-
Gil is dangerous in that they
think in terms of their public
relations instead of in terms of
what the public wants to know"
Mr.. Tannen said. Now you
get by press release a sort of
dried-up version of what goes
on in a meeting. I would like
to know what my councilman be-
lieves in"
Not all of the sentiment was
united, however. Mrs. Gertrude
Bradley, editor of the Bethesda
Record, said. "I do not agree
with what the association is do
ing. I don't think it's wise for
the council to hold all of its
meetings openly"