Bruce Topman Violating NY Open Meetings Law?
Possibly. In his March 13, 2008 letter to New York Insurance Department Superintendent Eric Dinallo, Gov. Spitzer appointed an Advisory Committee to develop new medical guidelines to be used at the Workers' Compensation Board. This committee includes "the general counsel to the Workers' Compensation Board; the Commissioner of Labor or her designee;two persons recommended by the New York State American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations; two persons recommended by the Business Council of New York State; a person recommended by the Majority Leader of the Senate; and a person recommended by the Speaker of the Assembly." To date, the Committee has met over 20 times and observers from the Injured Workers' Bar Association have been allowed to attend in the past.
Now, Bruce Topman, Eric Dinallo's representative on the Committee, is telling people who want to attend the next meeting as observers, that the meeting is a "closed meeting" and they will not be allowed to attend. May we respectfully suggest that Mr. Topman, a lawyer himself, re-read the New York Open Meetings Law. Clearly, this is a "meeting" as defined in the Open Meeting Law and is open to the public. Anyone can and should attend, despite Mr. Topman's discouragement.
The more interesting question is why Bruce Topman is choosing to keep the Advisory Committee's business secret? Is it because he will have a hard time justifying how he unilaterally wasted $162,500 of the taxpayers money to bring in the biased Christopher Brigham, MD and his discredited AMA Guidelines as reported yesterday at WorkersComp Central. Or does he believe he is simply above the law? We will see tomorrow when members of the interested "public" show up at the Advisory Committee meeting. Stay tuned...