BY ADAM ATKINSONNorth Country This Week

COLTON -- A Colton town councilman was recognized by a non-profit open government watchdog organization for his efforts to promote transparency in local government.

The New York Coalition For Open Government released its 2024 Naughty & Nice List last week and Colton Town Councilman Kevin Beary made the "Nice" list.

Beary, a prolific letters-to-the-editor writer and outspoken critic of what he feels are government oversteps, was cited by the organization for speaking up about what he viewed as an improper executive session.

"It is rare for an elected official to speak up regarding an improper executive session motion," the Coalition said in its official list. "Mr. Beary to his credit did just that."

"All too often executive session motions are just kind of automatically granted. We see a lot of them done incorrectly. The motions are not done properly, the reasons given aren't appropriate," said Paul Wolf, Coalition president during the Zoom presentation of the 2024 Naughty & Nice List.

"So in his town an executive session motion was made. It wasn't a proper motion and Mr. Beary to his credit spoke up about it and prevented the executive session from occurring," Wolf said. "So we wanted to recognize him. I know he has had a few instances of fighting for transparency on the Colton Town Board."

Beary was only one of nine public officials making the "Nice" list, and the only one from St. Lawrence County.

"Thank you for the recognition," Beary said during the Zoom presentation, after being named by Wolf, Coalition president. "As Paul has pointed out on numerous occasions, one of the big problems is that there's no penalty for these violations of the open meetings law. There's no penalty for the town supervisor refusing to give a reason to go into executive session. So that is a big problem."

"There's a weird relationship of psychological dominance and submission between the town supervisor and the board members often," Beary said during the presentation. "So the board members are often afraid they don't want to make waves. They don't want to point out to the Supervisor that he is violating the laws of New York State when he goes into executive session without stating a reason."

"Of course, often town boards go into executive session because they want to get out of the public eye. They don't want the scrutiny. They don't want people to see what's going on. That, of course, is a lack of transparency. So I urge all board members to stand up to their town supervisor when he violates the laws of New York State. Thank you," Beary said.

The Zoom presentation can be viewed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVa6EbrwTao .

According to its website the Coalition is a "nonpartisan, not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) organization of journalists, activists, attorneys, educators, news media organizations, and other concerned citizens who value open government and freedom of information."

The organization seeks to counsel and educate public officials on their legal responsibilities around open government and transparency, as well provide an open exchange of information regarding open government issues.

To read more about the Coalition or to see the 2024 Naughty or Nice list online, visit https://nyopengov.org/ .