1. The previous Commissioners were flayed, at least one (probably two) was libeled on the front pages – “Guilty” “Guilty” “Guilty” for violating the Sunshine Act, even though they didn’t violate the law.
2. The current Commission, after campaigning on the issue of “transparency and accountability” and holding a taxpayer-funded public meeting on the law, actually violated the Sunshine Act,: and there would’ve been zero coverage by LNP (whose representative [one of the Intell 5] personally witnessed the breach) had Ron Harper [of 5thEstate.com] not raised his voice.
3. The previous Commission (Shellenberger, Henderson) opposed the convention center.
4. The current Commission all received money from Lancaster Newspapers’s business partner, Dale High.
5. Henderson received no money from High. Coincidence?
The point is that the current Commission was protected by the monopoly newspapers and Dale High for breaking exactly the same law!
This Commission, unlike the previous Commission, passed SIX unlawful resolutions. They had to re-hold an entire meeting because every resolution passed at the last meeting was not legally binding. And if it wasn’t for Harper, the county would be facing some serious litigation based on those phony resolutions from the illegal meeting.
Was this Commission evil? No. Did they do the right thing by apologizing and admitting their mistake? Absolutely.
But, remember, the previous Commission apologized, admitted mistakes, held public meetings, and still were absolutely crucified because it was said (mistakenly) they broke the Sunshine law. That’s what Jack Brubaker and [Dave] Pidgeon and good ol’ Marv Adams were writing about. Hey, go back and look at the stories. The headlines were almost ALWAYS about the Sunshine “violation.”
Both should not have been big stories, but one was because of Lancaster Newspapers’s bias. This was an opportunity to point this out on the record.
