MARTA faces open meetings lawsuit
The MARTA Board of Directors has violated the Georgia Open Meetings Act, a community group says in a lawsuit filed last week in Fulton County Superior Court.
The Open Meetings Act requires government boards to conduct their business in public and to give adequate notice of what issues will be discussed. In the lawsuit, the group Concerned Citizens for Effective Government says the board violated the law on June 22 when it approved several items that did not appear on its agenda in advance. Among them was lawsuit settlement.
The group previously complained about the meeting to the state Attorney General's Office.
In response to that complaint, MARTA said its actions did not violate the law. It said the board discussed the lawsuit settlement in a closed session June 22 (as allowed by law) and needed to act on it in a timely fashion to avoid incurring unnecessary legal costs.
About the Author
David Wickert writes about the state budget, finance and voting issues. Previously, he covered local government and politics in Gwinnett and Fulton counties. Before moving to Atlanta, he worked at newspapers in Illinois, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington.
