Evening star., 1953-09-30
Closed Sessions
Attacked After
Council Leak
Revelation of Vote
On School Budget
Precipitotes Fuss
By ChorIes [. Hoffman

By ChorIes [. Hoffman
Closed sessions of the Mont
gomery County Council took q
pounding yesterday as mem
bers clashed over release Of
confidential statements made
by councilmen behind closed
doors.
Councilmen Lathrop E. Smith
and Grover Walker, two of the
principals in the dispute, both
scored the closed door sessions
as the chief source of the coun-
cil's troubles.
At the same time. Mr.. Smith
labeled as inadequate and un-
satisfactory the school budget
for this year.
He drew an immediate retort
from Harold F. Hammond that
he thought the budget was a
darn good one" He added:
ct don't think you really mean
the budget was a mess"
Involved PTA Story.
The f1are-up was the result Of
a newspaper article Septem-
Der 18 in which the County
Council of Parent Teacher AS
sociationS indicated they had
received information from Mr..
Smith that school budget cuts
were attributable chiefly to Louis
A. Gravelle. Mr.. Walker and j.
Louis Monarch. Afterward, PTA
spokesmen said they got their
information from several sources.
1T disturbs me that these
| statements were published" Mr..
Gravelle said.
Mr.. Walker said either individ-
ual opinions and statements ex-
pressed in closed session should be
kept confidential or else all closed
sessions should be abandoned SO
that "the public may get directly
our personal views"
THE latter" he added, would
clear the air"
Take Dim View.
All three main principals in
the dispute took a dim view of
PTA council statement black
balling" the three economy
minded councilmen.
IT took my oath to represent
240,00O people, not pressure
groups" Mr.. Gravelle said.
Mr.. Walker said he feared the
PTA letter would leak into the
classroom and put politics in
the schools"
Mr.. Smith apologized to the
three members if Il embarrassed
them" But he continued to at
tack the school budget.
"It shocked me-" he said.
when I realized we had made
our decision in executive ses-
sions on this budget" Mr.. Smith
also said he felt part of our
trouble is still doing too much
in executive session"
Every time we get in trouble
it goes back to a closed Ses-
sion," he continued.
Mr.. Smith also criticized the
council for a bad year"
Sees lawful Boners."
We've made some awful
boners," he said. Il think we
have lost something in the way
of courage and spirit in the last
year."
Mr.. Smith also submitted a
report to the council on the
recent International City Man
ager Associations convention in
San Francisco.
He said the consensus there
was that closed sessions should
be kept to a minimum and lin
tied only to personnel problems
and real estate plans.
The council late last year
abandoned its regularly sched-
uled Tuesday morning secret
session when Councilman George
F. Nesbitt became president.
In recent months, however.
closed sessions, although not for
mally scheduled. have been a
regular feature of the Tuesday
meetings. Closed session min
utes. in brief form, are open to
the public.
Conference With BeaI.
Last week the council met in
open session for less than 80
minutes and then tried out a new
conference meeting behind closed
doors with the new County Man.
ager E. T. Beall.
The conference lasted for sew
eral hours and no minutes were
taken. Mr.. Nesbitt said the con-
ference was held on personnel
and administrative matters"
The conference, however, has
a semblance of becoming a per-
manent fixture Another hour
long conference was held in Mr..
Beall's private Office prior to the
open session yesterday. Another
conference is in sight next week,
one councilman said.
A