9. Legal TrainingCity of Scandia – Council Legal Training
Presented by: Andy Pratt, City Attorney
Open Meeting Law
•All Council meetings must be open to the public, unless a
specific statutory exception applies.
•The Open Meeting Law covers the City Council, Planning
Commission, Parks and Recreation Committee, EDA,
and any other entities created by or reporting to the
Council.
•The Open Meeting Law covers all regular and special
meetings, and workshops.
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Open Meeting Law
•The OML applies to any gathering of a quorum or more
of public officials, where the officials discuss, decide or
receive information as a group relating to the official
business of the City.
•Social gatherings are usually not applicable
•Parties
•Grocery Store
•Chamber of Commerce
•LMC Conference
•Taco Daze
Open Meeting Law
•Specific Exceptions:
•Labor Negotiation strategy
•Evaluation of an individual subject to City Council authority*
•Attorney-client Privilege
•Security briefings; emergency procedures
•Preliminary consideration of allegations or charges against an individual
subject to City Council authority*
•Private data
•Purchase or sale of property
Open Meeting Law
•Serial Meetings
•Usually refers to a “rolling” meeting between individual Council members, or
email correspondence to all.
•OML is understood to prevent binding decisions from being made in this
non-public way.
•Don’t click “reply all” to an email!
•Ex Parte Communication
•Planning Commission site visits
•Policy adopted last year
Open Meeting Law
•Notice Requirements
•Regular meetings Schedule must be on file at City Hall
•Special meetings 3 days posted notice, and mailed to all who have
requested notice of special meetings
•Emergency meetings These meetings are used for items requiring
immediate consideration. No posted notice is required, but a good-faith
effort must be made to notify the media.
Open Meeting Law
•“The use of social media by members of a public body
does not violate the OML so long as the social media
use is limited to exchanges with all members of the
general public. Email is not considered a type of social
media.”
•At least one copy of the printed materials relating to
agenda items that are provided to the City Council at or
before a meeting must also be made available for public
inspection in the meeting room while the Council
considers the item.
Open Meeting Law
•Penalties
•A successful complainant may receive up to $13,000 in reasonable costs,
disbursements, and attorney fees, if a violation is proven.
•A Council member violating the OML is subject to a $300 fine, which cannot
be paid by the City.
•If there are three separate and intentional violations of the OML, the Council
member must forfeit the office.
Data Practices Act
•All “government data” is presumed public.
•A specific statutory exception must be found to conclude
government data is private.
•City must maintain all government data pursuant to
applicable record retention schedules.
•City must have procedures to allow for timely response
to data practice requests.
Data Practices Act
•Staff memos, resolutions, ordinances are all public;
Council contact information too.
•Emails to/from a Council Member are typically
public…whether on “City email” or a private account.
•Correspondence between residents and elected officials
is private…but may be made public by either party to the
correspondence!
Data Practices Act
•City email accounts Best to use only City account
•If personal email account, others may have access to it, thereby stripping
confidentiality. Messages may also be inadvertently deleted.
•If private employer account, the employer may have policies restricting email
use. If a public data request is made, the employer’s email server may have
to be searched.
•Email messages are subject to data practice requests, and must be retained
pursuant to state records retention requirements.
Data Practices Act
•There must be a “Responsible Authority” to comply with data practice
requests.
•Recent state statutes require an “inventory” of data maintained by the City.
We will be amending the City’s current documents or will create a new
inventory if necessary.
•A data requester does not need to identify himself/herself, but the City must
receive enough identifying information to know who to send the data to.
•Costs: 25 cents/page for each page copied, if fewer than 100 B/W pages.
•Costs: “Actual costs” to search and retrieve government data, including cost
of employee time.
•Usually must respond to data requests within 10 business days.
Conflict of Interest
•A public official may not voluntarily have a personal
financial interest in a sale, lease or contract coming
before the City Council.
•Violation of this law is a gross misdemeanor.
•Abstaining from Council discussion is not enough
•ALL contracts violating this law are void.
Conflict of Interest
•There are many exceptions to this conflict rule…ask me!
•If there is a perceived conflict in non-contract areas,
such as a zoning decision, local improvements, license
issuances, etc., an abstention may be appropriate.
Gift Law
•All local officials (elected and appointed) are covered by
the gift law. Very broad.
•A “gift” is money, property, service, loan, forbearance of
debt, promise of a job, etc.
•Cannot accept a gift from an “interested person” (i.e.
anyone with a direct financial interest in a decision the
local official can make).
•Exceptions: Items of $5 or less, low value trinkets, things
of insignificant value.
Confidentiality
•Council members are regularly contacted by the media
and other interested parties.
•99% of all Council matters are already public
information, requiring no further comment.
•If unsure, check with City staff or with my office.
Public Purpose Expenditures
•General Rule: Cities may only expend public money for public purposes.
•Activity benefits community as a body;
•Activity is directly related to functions of government; and
•Activity does not have as its primary objective the benefit of a private interest.
•Statutes allow money to be given for community celebrations, artistic
organizations, historical societies, youth centers, non-profit senior centers,
etc.
Misc.
•Most cities use Robert’s Rules of Procedure to govern meeting participation.
The Council can utilize whatever rules or procedures it likes, and may adopt
written procedures for the same.
•Appointing a new Councilmember: If there is a tie vote (2-2), the Mayor can
break the tie and appoint whomever they wish.
•Censure: Councils are free to censure/reprimand their own members, by a
majority vote. How the censure is interpreted is up to the Council, such as:
•Member can be pulled from committee assignments
•Member may be cautioned to not represent the City at other
meetings and functions
•Purely symbolic