Agenda - Council - 04/23/1985 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I i I City of Ramsey 15153NOWTHEN BOULEVARDN.W.,RAMSEY, MINNESOTA 55303 · (612) 427.1410 H ~,, H 0 R A N D U N WILLIAM K GOODRICH. CITYAI-[ORNE-,· To: From: Re: Date: Ramsey City Council William K. Goodrich, City Attorney Open Meeting Law April 18, 1985 At a recent Council meeting, the Council requested that I clarify the Open Meeting Law specifically as it relates to more than one council person meeting with an individual to discuss city business. As you are aware, M.S.A. 471.705 provides in part as follows: Subdivision 1. Except as otberwise expressly provided by statute, all meetings, including executive sessions, of any state agency, board, commission or department when required or permitted by law to transact public business in a meeting, and the governing body of any school district, however organized, unorganized, territory, county, city, town, or other public body, and of any committee, subcommittee, board, department or commission thereof, shall be open to the public . . . (emphasis is added). In reaffirmation of this law, the City Council in 1982 passed Resolution 82-32 which is attached to this memorandum. After the adoption of Resolution 82-32, the Minnesota Supreme Court reviewed the Open Meeting Law (MSA 471.705) and issued its decision in Moberg v. Independent School District No. 281, 336 N.W. 2d 510 ~I983). The Court in Moberg-interpreted the Open Meeting Law as meaning that a discussion between two members of a governing body about a matter before that body is not a per se violation of the Open Meeting Law. Therfore, the Mober_~ case ended the assumption that whenever less than a quo~-~-~ oz government officials discuss public matters, the officials must follow the Open Meeting Law. The Court defines "meetings" subject to the requirements of the Open Meeting Law as those gatherings of a quorum or more members of the governing body, or a quorum of a committee, subcommittee, board, department or commission thereof, at which members discuss, decide or receive information as a group on issues relating to the official business of that governing body. Chance or social gatherings of a quorum are exempted from the statute, unless the gathering is used as a guise to conduct official business. The statute does not apply to letters or telephone conversations between fewer than a quorum.