The Indiana Publisher

Page 7 October 2022 Managing Editor If you like working in a fast-paced environment with other like-minded people, this is the job for you. We are looking for someone who loves serv- ing the community with high integrity and sharp journalism skills. The Wabash Plain Dealer is seek- ing a managing editor who is pas- sionate about local journalism and able to manage news operations at a paper that publishes twice a week. We need someone with strong orga- nizational, writing and reporting skills. The right candidate will have the ability to produce hard news stories and features with a knack for getting to the heart of an issue while helping others do the same. As the face of the editorial side of the Plain Dealer, the managing editor will need to forge strong working rela- tionships with top officials and com- munity leaders while managing pro- duction and communication strate- gies at the paper. The managing edi- tor is responsible for ensuring each paper meets daily newspaper and special publication deadlines. The print edition publishes on Wednesday and Saturday. This role works closely with the executive editor to create and execute readership strategies, playing a main role in story gathering and agenda setting. This is a salaried position. Ability to work some nights and weekends is required. A license, good driving record and reliable transportation are required. Benefits: Paid holidays, ten days (80 hours) of vacation pay, sick leave, 401k matching, health and dental insurance plans, personal day among others. Qualifications Work experience: prior news-writ- ing experience, editorial experience, editing experience preferred Education: college degree in jour- nalism, communications, English or related field preferred Job-related requirements: ability to manage multiple projects at one time. Photography skills are preferred but not required. We are an equal opportunity employer. Please send your resume, salary requirements and writing samples to jkeever@pmginmi.com. Copy Editor/Paginator Contrary to popular opinion, newspapers are not dead. In fact, outside the metropolitan areas, news- papers are busier than ever. Sagamore News Media is looking for someone to work in news, but it's not a traditional news job. It's a com- bination of the old rim and slot posi- tions from copy desks of old, pagina- tion and compiling news from various sources from copy desks of today and some writing and photo work. We have award winning publica- tions and are looking for someone who wants to help us build on that. We are looking for someone who is innovative, creative, works well on deadline and has a passion for news. Experience in InDesign and pagi- nation is a plus, but we can train as well. Please send resume and cover letter to jobs@thepaper24-7.com. Have a job listing you want to promote? Contact Shawn Goldsby, sgoldsby@hspa.com. View listings at https://www.hspa.com/jobs. Employment opportunities Door Law does not require a governing body to "debate or disagree with each other in public," he wrote. For a document to be considered deliberative, there needs to be deliberation, Britt wrote. "Deliberation is a condition precedent to qualifying documents as deliberative material. If, as Purdue suggests, meetings are merely perfunctory obligations to rubber-stamp predetermined, united action, then there is no credible way to categorize board packets as deliberative. To do so suggests a decision has already been made, which is a segue to part two of this discussion." Too many executive sessions? Executive sessions are used by agencies when discussing matters specified confidential by state law and are typically held the day before public meetings. All other matters must be discussed in open meetings. While pointing out the fact that there is no legal limit on the number of executive sessions an agency can hold, and a large university like Purdue may need to hold many, Britt said the way the trustees act in public meetings implies wrongdoing in executive sessions. "If, as Purdue suggests, there is no debate required at a public meeting, and everything is accomplished by consent agenda, it follows that the Board is settling all matters behind closed doors – even those issues that fall outside of the executive session statute," Britt wrote. "If a meeting of a governing body is simply a paint-by-numbers, go-through-the-motion exercise, then the Open Door Law is not worth the paper upon which it is printed." Executive sessions are held before nearly every trustees meeting at Purdue, and the reason for them is never apparent, because they list every relevant statute for each of the executive sessions. Britt clarified that even when holding executive sessions for the right reasons, all decisions must be explained in public so that observers can evaluate the quality of those decisions. When those decisions are approved in public meetings, they are still never explained. The importance of transparency "It is the opinion of this office that the Purdue University Board of Trustees should reconsider its position on disclosing board packets prior to its meetings," Britt wrote in his conclusion. "Similarly, while the frequency of the board's executive sessions does not appear to be immediately problematic, the board should ensure that public meetings contain robust discussion when warranted to give context to its actions." Purdue spokesperson Tim Doty replied to The Exponent's request for comment after the ruling, saying he was glad that the public access counselor ruled in Purdue's favor and did not expressly find the university had violated state law, despite the strongly worded opinion. "I can't imagine anyone reading that opinion and having the takeaway that a mere set of slides is enough to satisfy a request for a board packet," Britt said in an email to The Exponent the next day. "Some spot redactions of certain material would theoretically be appropriate at times, but that would be the exception and not the rule. "The opinion was forceful and made the necessary points." Britt has consistently ruled that agencies refusing to release public records have violated public access laws, most notable in our own back yard in February. Britt ruled that the West Lafayette Community School Corp. violated public record laws when it denied a community member access to the board packets for a meeting three days earlier. The Exponent maintains - as the state official overseeing that public records laws be upheld agrees - that board packets should be released before meetings so that the public can be properly informed of how its taxpayer-supported university functions and that the board should act with more transparency in its decision-making process. "If a meeting of a governing body is simply a paint-by-numbers, go-through-the-motion exercise, then the Open Door Law is not worth the paper upon which it is printed." — Luke Britt, Indiana public access counselor Trustees Continued from Page 6

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