Open the doors
The AIU does too much public business in private
When it comes to the state’s open meeting law, officials with the Allegheny Intermediate Unit operate like a private business — behind closed doors.
Everything else about the organization says the AIU is a public entity that must conduct its business in plain view of taxpayers, just like a school district.
The AIU is one of 29 intermediate units in Pennsylvania, created by the Legislature in the 1970s to offer special education, testing, training and other services to schools. In the case of the Allegheny IU, that means serving students of 42 suburban districts, whether they attend district, charter or private schools.
The AIU employs hundreds of people — teachers, aides, administrators and others who provide vision, speech and hearing services. It operates three special education centers for students who cannot be accommodated in district classrooms. Its board has 13 members, all of whom are elected school board members in their home districts. Most of its $167 million budget comes from local, state and federal tax dollars.
What the intermediate unit usually lacks is an audience of interested taxpayers at its monthly meetings. The arm’s length nature of its transactions with the public, however, does not erase the AIU’s responsibility to hold its sessions in plain view.
The board’s behavior in the past six months suggests that it does too much of the preparation for public votes behind closed doors.
In January, Post-Gazette reporter Mary Niederberger began attending the board’s scheduled monthly sessions — back-to-back meetings set for 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. She observed that, first, members typically had dinner and held a closed executive session. Those meetings are permitted under the law, but they’re supposed to be limited to personnel, litigation and real estate transactions.
After they emerged, their so-called workshops, where agendas are reviewed, were brief — none was held on June 22 — and members asked few questions. In the voting sessions that followed, large agendas lumped dozens of items together and were voted upon quickly. Public business usually concluded in minutes.
After the June 22 meeting, AIU board president Shauna D’Alessandro said, “We are a big organization. We don’t discuss every copy machine purchase in public.” The AIU’s solicitor said the board’s conduct complies with the law.
Even if he is correct, there’s no question that Ms. D’Alessandro’s statement showed disdain for public access. By its very behavior, the AIU board is, at best, defying the spirit of the law. At worst, it is breaking it.