When the Cayuga County Legislature gave notice last week for a special Health and Human Services Committee meeting two days later, the topic on the printed agenda simply stated “Director of Community Services Board Discussion.”

In an interview with a reporter the same day of the notice, committee Chairwoman Ann Petrus said legislators needed to discuss the possibility of hiring different people for the positions of CSB director and county mental health department director. Both posts in the past had been held by the same person, but the vacancies created by the retirement of David Blair got the Legislature to rethink the job descriptions and now, apparently, the overall structure.

Unfortunately, the Legislature's thinking so far appears scattered at best, even after last week's special session.

That's because, despite Petrus' explanation prior to the session of what its purpose would be, the committee met in executive session, citing potential litigation and an interview with an interim CSB director candidate as the reasons.

Both matters are certainly legitimate reasons for an executive session, but why weren't they put on the agenda for the meeting?

The more important question, though, is why there was no discussion of the position structure, as Petrus had said there would be. We're sure legislators know open meetings law well enough to understand that a debate of the structure of any position is not grounds for going behind closed doors, so we must assume that this important matter - the pros and cons of hiring two people instead of one - still needs a full, open discussion.

We hope that topic does come up for discussion at next week's regular HHS committee meeting because, as we've said before, the county needs to get qualified, permanent leadership in place soon to take charge of its mental health care services.