Late meeting notice concerns former Ogden Dunes council member

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Updated: February 26, 2012 8:11AM

A former Ogden Dunes councilman is concerned the public wasn’t given adequate notice prior to the Town Council emergency meeting on Monday, but a current member countered that the meeting passes legal muster.

At the noon meeting, the council voted to suspend the remainder of its special use deer cull permit from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The meeting was open to the public.

Eric Kurtz, who served on the council through 2011, has requested a formal opinion from the state’s public access counselor as to whether the council violated the Open Door Law. Kurtz said there was no posted notice of the meeting at the town hall by 5 p.m. Friday, when the law requires at least 48 hours’ notice prior to the meeting — excluding weekends and holidays. But 48 hours notice is suspended for emergency meetings.

“It appears to be an intentional effort to avoid public scrutiny of its decisions,” Kurtz said.

Councilman Charlie Costanza, District 2, said that the meeting did meet the definition of an emergency meeting, which can be called to discuss threatened litigation.

“We talked with town attorney Chuck Lukmann and he gave us the exact language to justify the meeting,” Costanza said. “This makes me very angry because (Kurtz is) mad because we had to correct the only thing he accomplished while on the council -- the illegal deer cull.”