A couple months ago, a Caroline County citizen raised objections regarding the Caroline County Board of Supervisors, Caroline’s Promise, and Caroline’s Promise’s faith based initiatives. Separation of church and state and all that.
Feel free to argue amongst yourself as to whether you agree with Caroline’s Promise’s policies and programs or not, but that’s the topic of discussion for another post.
Here’s the topic of this post, however: If you heard over to the Caroline County forum on that waste-of-electrons known as FredTalk, you will see people taking about what the Attorney General said in an legal opinion that was provided to the Caroline County Board of Supervisors during a closed session meeting.
This opinion should be covered under closed session meeting standards, as well as under attorney/client privilege, and not be discussed with members of the public.
The opinion which information was leaked from was an informal/unofficial opinion that the Board requested to see if there were any problems that needed to be rectified immediately.
The Board has also requested an official, formal opinion that will be released to the public in the future, which hasn’t finished being prepared at this point.
County Administrator Percy Ashcraft has confirmed that a leak has occurred and stated that the leak didn’t come from anyone on the county staff.
He pointed out that there were only eight or nine people in the room. Three or four people were county staff: Percy Ashcraft; the county attorney; the deputy county administrator, and possibly Ashcraft’s administrative assistant (she skips the closed sessions sometimes due to the fact that no minutes have to be kept for closed sessions).
None of these persons have the position or reason to leak this information. The County Administrator’s Office would be smart enough not to discuss anyone without the proper “clearance”, and the county attorney should understand the principles of attorney/client privilege.
So, folks, who does that leave?
Well, those five lovely folks on the Board of Supervisors.
Now, which member of the Board of Supervisors has connections to that waste-of-electrons known as FredTalk?
Why, that would be Jeff Sili. His wife loves to post on that forum using the alias “oharascarlett” and is bestest buddies with the persons talking about the information contained in the legal opinion.
Not only that, but isn’t Susan Sili on the Board of Directors of Caroline’s Promise? Why, yes, I believe she is.
Sidebar: Anyone else see a conflict of interest in the Board of Supervisors appropriating money to an organization that is being ran by family members of the supervisors?
Of course, this isn’t the first time that confidential information has been leaked from the Board of Supervisors.
The last time around, it was Susan Sili posting about who would be hired for a job — nine days before there was an official announcement!
The person who was hired? A good friend of the Silis!
If I’m not mistaken, it’s against the law to leak information from a closed session. Even if it isn’t against the law, it’s a violation of the Board’s attorney/client privilege.
Has the Board of Supervisors launched an inquiry into this matter?
Are criminal charges being pursued at this point? Impeachment? Censure? Etc.