Evening star., 1953-07-15
Recreation Board
May Change Policy
On Public Sessions
By jones 6. Deone

may make some changes soon
In it's policies on public attend
ance at its meetings.
The public might get to look
In on more sessions-or possibly
fewer.
Supt. Milo F. Christensen
yesterday told the board there
would be advantages in opening
budget meetings to the public.
Later he said he might ask the
board to consider this step soon.
AT the same time, the board
received an opinion from Cor
poration Counsel Vernon E. West
that it can legally hold commit
tee meetings in secret, though
formal board meetings by law
must be public. This raised a
question as to the future status
of key Transition Committee
sessions. .
Considers Racial Use.
The Transition Committee
which actually includes all board
members-considers changes in
racial use of Fairgrounds. In
the past it has sometimes met
publicly, but more often in pri-
Vate.
Mr.. Vests opinion was sought
because several board members
questioned the presence of news
paper reporters at Transition
Committee session last spring.
Henry Gichner, new board
chairman, was one of those rails
ing the point. He told a reporter
yesterday he feels board mem
berS should have some oppor-
tunitieS to meet in private.
The chairman added he had
no particular objection to having
reporters attend Transition Com
mittee sessions, but he said he
hadn't made up his mind on the
subject definitely.
Closed Budget Sessions.
He said he thought budget
sessions, however, should remain
closed.
Reporters customarily have
been invited to attend regular
monthly board meetings ever
since the boards establishment.
The public also can attend such
sessions.
In several cases when the time
of a Transition Committee meet
ing has been publicly announced,
reporters have shown up and the
board has allowed them to re-
main. But other sessions of the
committee have been held with
out any advance announcement.
It was at a Transition Com
mittee session last fall that board
members first recommended the
controversial decision to end race
bars at Rosedale Playground, in
the Northeast. The board later
adopted this recommendation.
Another Transition Committee
meeting last April resulted in the
decision to open RoSedale's SWIM
ming pool to bi-racial use this
summer. Reporters attended both
these sessions.
One point raised by observers
has been that since all board
members belong to the Transition
Committee, they are in effect
using a change in name to get
around the legal requirement for
public board meetings.
Budget Sessions Not at Issue.
On the score of budget sessions,
no one has questioned the boards
practice of holding these behind
closed doors. But Corporation
Counsel West recently told the
Board of Education there was no
legal bar to making budget re-
quests public before they go to
the Commissioners. So there
seems to be no legal reason why
the Recreation Board, as we'll as
the Board of Education, shouldn't
discuss it's budget proposals in
public.
The Board of Education, in
fact, may have to open its budget
sessions because of a special law
apparently now being ignored
requiring all it's meetings to be
public except those dealing with
teacher appointments. School
board members currently are
planning to seek an opinion on
this subject.
The Recreation Board isn't
governed by this particular law.
But Mr.. christensen indicated
he'd like to see its budget ses-
sions opened up in order to in
crease public support for the
departments requests.
The superintendent conceded
that this might be headache to
District budget officials, however.