Agenda - Council - 03/13/1991 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Case No.~__ By: OPEN MEETING LAW INFORMATION William K. Goodrich, City Attorney BACKGROUND: MSA §471.705 requires that all City Council meetings, including any committee, subcommittee or commission of the City Council be open to the public. This means that all City Commission meetings such as Planning Commission, Housecare Commission, Fire Board, etc. need to be open to the public. In addition, meetings of official sub- committees of the Council and Commissions need to be open to the public. This includes such committees as the Personnel and Road and Bridge Committees. This is true even though these type committees may compromise less than a quorum of the Council or Commission. The reason for this is that these are official committees of the governing body and the members meet to discuss, decide or receive information as a group relating to official business of the body. The Supreme Court has ruled that a "meeting" for purposes of the open meeting law does not include a meeting of less than a quorum of the official body. PLEASE NOTE the distinction, however, between less than a quorum meeting of an official body and the meeting of less than a quorum of an official body which is also a formal committee of the official body. For example, a private meeting of two Council members who are not meeting as an official subcommittee would not technically be an open meeting law violation. However, if the two Council members are the Personnel Committee and they have a private meeting to discuss City personnel matters, this would be an open meeting violation. I am of the opinion that this distinction can be difficult and therefore have consistently advised the City Council members, as well as other Commission members to avoid private meetings of two members, even though two members do not constitute a quorum of the City Council. The League of Minnesota cities handbook states on this subject: The Court has warned that even though gatherings of less than a quorum do not constitute meetings under the law, serial gatherings of less than a quorum for the purpose of avoiding public hearings or fashioning agreement on an issue may be a violation of the statute depending on the individual case.