The Chair of the City of Atlanta’s audit committee told City Council members on Friday that the committee would no longer hold closed meetings.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Thursday that the committee, which oversees the city's independent auditor, has met for years met in private, an apparent violation of the state's open meetings law.
The city’s auditor is charged with making government more accountable cost-effective and transparent.
The issue came to light in correspondence obtained by the AJC between Audit Committee Chair Marion Cameron and City Attorney Nina Hickson in a debate about how best to establish a city Inspector General.
In a letter dated Wednesday, Hickson told Cameron that under no circumstances should the committee hold private meetings.
During a meeting on Friday, Cameron told the council’s Finance Executive Committee that she would work with the city’s Transparency Officer to ensure that the committee was following the state’s sunshine law.
The specially called meeting was to discuss legislation creating a new Inspector General to root out corruption in the city.
Cameron emphasized that she still opposed putting the auditor under the IG’s office. She said that the issue about the committees’ private meetings should not overshadow that folding the auditor into another office would threaten the auditor’s independence.
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