Just over a month ago, the Greenwood Town Board adopted the gold standard of transparency in government, the MN Data Practices Act, and did so by a unanimous vote. The act gives citizens the right to obtain public data and all Minnesota cities, counties, school boards, and agencies, no matter how large or small, are subject to its provisions.
Only townships outside the seven-county metro area are exempt, mainly because many small townships lacked the resources (computers, printers, copiers, fax, email, internet) at the time this law passed in 1974. Certainly, Greenwood has the equipment and resources to comply as Tower, Orr, Virginia and all the small cities in our region have for decades. 
There’s no longer any reason that residents of Greenwood Township should be second class citizens when it comes to public access to records.
Then, Supervisors Roskoski and Skubic called a special meeting on June 20 with the title “Mn Data Practices Act,” but the notice lacked a stated purpose which is required by the Open Meeting Law. Supervisor Stoehr and I noted the meeting was in violation of the law and moved to adjourn but our motion failed. Supervisor Roskoski proceeded to make a motion to rescind the motion to comply with the Data Practices Act the board had passed just the previous month. I then informed Supervisor Roskoski such a motion would require a two-thirds vote, but Roskoski and Supervisors Skubic and Gilbert bullied their way through and passed the rescind motion by a simple majority, ignoring state law and common rules of order.
During the last Greenwood Township election, we heard from supervisor candidate Roskoski about how her 35 years of service to the city of Virginia and her desire for greater transparency were qualifications for her election. It should have also taught her something about the Data Practices Act (a law the city of Virginia has abided by for decades), but she described the Act as “a monstrosity of a law” at the special meeting. Her campaign rhetoric was good enough to get her elected, but it lacked something very important—conviction.
John Bassing
Greenwood Township