Open Meetings Act

2 Jan 2023 A newly elected or appointed official is required to be trained in only two topics; Open Meetings Act and Public Information Act. Both say it all in the titles. Open Meetings stresses the importance of open disclosure of not only the votes, but even the discussions that lead to the votes. Quorums are to be honored and the Act goes as far as to prevent ways that some would use to circumvent, such as walking quorums. I am glad that our meetings are not only streamed, but are also recorded and available to the public.

Having open meetings obviously allows all the public to not only know of issues, but assist the city with facts that may assist in the commission's or city staff's decision making.

There are exceptions to the open meetings. These executive privileges are few and should be used sparingly. In the past several months our commission has had to have many of these to address personnel, to address responses to issues with our attorney and other legal issues. It is imperative that we test the topics that we feel we must address in executive session to validate the item as an executive or closed session item. Some items that, had they been addressed in Open session, may not have become so controversial.

It is difficult to not address or inform the public of some of the discussions that are held in executive session, but in many cases it is not appropriate for the sake of the personnel or in some cases potential legal issues. On occasion it is also difficult to discuss items in open session. The commissioners cannot address or debate issues with more than one other commissioner prior to an open meeting. Many of the items are explored in the open session and we are often expected to come to a resolution in the same meeting.