HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-08-17 - Open Meetings & RecordsRESOLUTION
A RESOLUTION PROVIDING A WRITTEN POLICY ON OPEN MEETINGS
AND RECORDS IN COMPLIANCE WITH CHAPTER 610 OF THE REVISED
STATUTES OF MISSOURI, COMMONLY KNOWN AS THE SUNSHINE LAW
WHEREAS, the Missouri General Assembly enacted the Missouri Open Meetings and
Records Law, and
WHEREAS, Section 610.028(2) of the Open Meetings and Records law requires each
political subdivision to provide a reasonable written policy in compliance with Sections 610.010
to 610.030 R.S. Mo.,
NOW THEREFORE, BE Tf RESOLVED THAT the Board of Aldermen of the City of
Riverside hereby adopts the following policy to apply to all governmental bodies and committees
of this municipality:
Section 1. All meetings, records and votes are open to the public, except the
governmental body may close any meeting, record or vote relating to the following:
a. Legal actions, causes of action or litigation involving a public
governmental body and any confidential or privileged communications between a public
governmental body or its representatives and its attorneys. However, any vote relating to
litigation involving a public governmental body shall be made public upon final disposition of
the matter voted upon; provided, however, in matters involving the exercise of the power of
eminent domain, the vote shall be announced or become public immediately following the action
on the motion to authorize institution of such a legal action. Legal work product shall be
considered a closed record.
b. Lease, purchase or sale of real estate by a public governmental body
where public knowledge of the transaction might adversely affect the legal consideration
therefore. However, any vote or public record approving a contract relating to the lease,
purchase or sale of real estate by a public governmental body shall be made public within
seventy-two hours after execution of the lease, purchase or sale of the real estate.
c. Hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting an employee of a public
governmental body. However, any vote on a final decision, when taken by a public
governmental body, to hire; fire, promote or discipline an employee of a public governmental
body must be made available to the public with a record of how each member voted within
seventy-two hours of the close of the meeting where such action occurs; provided, however, that
any employee so affected shall be entitled to prompt notice before such decision is made
available to the public.
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d. Nonjudicial mental or physical health proceedings involving identifiable
persons, including medical, psychiatric, psychological or alcoholism or drug dependency
diagnosis or treatment.
e. Testing and examination materials, before the test or examination is given
or if it is to be given again before so given again.
f. Welfaze cases if identifiable individuals.
g. Preparation, including any discussions or work product, on behalf of a
public governmental body or its representatives for negotiations with employee groups.
h. Software codes for electronic data processing and documentation thereof.
i. Specifications for competitive bidding, until either the specifications aze
officially approved by the public governmental body or the specifications are published for bid.
j. Sealed bids and related documents, until the earlier of either when the bids
aze opened, or all bids are accepted or all bids aze rejected.
k. Individually identifiable personnel records, performance ratings or records
pertaining to employees or applicants for employment, except that this exemption shall not apply
to the names, positions, salaries and lengths of service of officers and employees of public
agencies once they are employed as such.
Records that are protected from disclosure by law.
m. Meetings and public records relating to scientific and technological
innovations in which the owner has a proprietary interest.
n. Confidential or privileged communications between a public
governmental body and its auditor, including all auditor work product.
o. Operational guidelines and policies developed, adopted, or maintained by
any public agency responsible for law enforcement, public safety, first response, or public health
for use in responding to or preventing any critical incident which is or appears to be terrorist in
nature and which has the potential to endanger individual or public safety or health. Nothing in
this exception shall be deemed to close information regazding expenditures, purchases, or
contracts m ade b y an a gency i n i mplementing t hese g uidelines o r p olicies. W hen s eeking t o
close information pursuant to this exception, the agency shall affirmatively state in writing that
disclosure would impair its ability to protect the safety or health of persons, and shall in the same
writing state that the public interest in nondisclosure outweighs the public interest in disclosure
of the records. This exception shall sunset on December 31, 2008.
p. Existing or proposed security systems and structural plans of real property
owned or leased by a public governmental body, and information that is voluntarily submitted by
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anon-public entity owning or operating an infrastructure to any public governmental body for
use b y t hat b ody t o d evise p lans f or p rotection of t hat i nfrastructure, t he p ublic d isclosure o f
which would threaten public safety.
Records related to the procurement of or expenditures relating to security systems
purchased with public funds shall be open.
When seeking to close information pursuant to this exception, the public
governmental body shall affirmatively state in writing that disclosure would impair the public
governmental body's ability to protect the security of safety of persons or real property, and shall
in the same writing state that the public interest in nondisclosure outweighs the public interest in
disclosure of the records.
Records t hat a re v oluntarily s ubmitted b y a n onpublic a ntity shall b e r eviewed
within ninety days of submission to determine if retention of the document is necessazy in
furtherance of a security interest. If retention is not necessary, the documents shall be returned to
the nonpublic governmental body or destroyed.
q. Records that identify the configuration of components or the operation of
a computer, computer system, computer network, or telecommunications network, and would
allow unauthorized access to or unlawful disruption of a computer, computer system, computer
network, or telecommunications network of a public governmental body. This exception shall
not be used to limit or deny access to otherwise public records in a file, document, data file or
database containing public records. Records related to the procurement of or expenditures
relating to such computer, computer system, computer network, or telecommunications network,
including the amount of moneys paid by, or on behalf of, a public governmental body for such
computer, computer system, computer network, or telecommunications network shall be open.
r. Credit card numbers, personal identification numbers, digital certificates,
physical and virtual keys, access codes or authorization codes that aze used to protect the security
of electronic transactions between a public governmental body and a person or entity doing
business with a public governmental body. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to close the
record of a person or entity using a credit card held in the name of a public governmental body or
any record of a transaction made by a person using a credit card or other method of payment for
which reimbursement is made by a public governmental body.
Section 2. All records that may be closed hereby aze deemed closed records unless
the governmental body votes to make them public. Before closing a meeting to the public, a
majority of a quorum of the governmental body must vote to do so in a public vote. The vote of
each member of the governmental body on the question of closing the meeting or vote and the
reason for closing the meeting by reference to a specific exception shall be announced at a public
meeting and entered into the minutes.
Section 3. The governmental body shall give notice of the time, date and place of a
closed meeting and the reason for holding it by reference to a specific exception. The notice
shall be the same a s in (4) below. N o other business specific reason a nnounced to close the
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meeting to the public. Public governmental bodies holding a closed meeting must close only an
existing portion of the meeting facility necessary to house the members of the public
governmental body in the closed session, allowing members of the public to remain to attend any
subsequent open session held by the public governmental body following the closed session.
Section 4. The governmental body shall give notice of the time, date, place and
tentative agenda of each meeting. The notice shall be placed on the appropriate bulletin boazd at
city hall at least 24 hours, exclusive of weekends and holidays, prior to the meeting. If an
emergency makes it impossible to give 24 hours notice, the reason must be reflected in the
minutes. Notice also shall be given to any representative of the new media who requests notice
of a particulaz meeting.
Section 5. Each meeting shall be held at a place reasonably accessible to the public,
and at a time reasonably convenient to the public, unless for good cause such a place or time is
impossible or impractical. When it is necessary to hold a meeting on less than twenty-four hours
notice, or at a place that is not reasonably accessible to the public, or at a time that is not
reasonably convenient to the public, the nature of the good cause justifying that departure form
the normal requirements shall be stated in the minutes.
Section 6. A formally constituted subunit of a pazent governmental body may
conduct a meeting without notice during a lawful meeting of the parent governmental body, a
recess in that meeting, or immediately following that meeting, if the meeting of the subunit is
publicly announced at the pazent meeting and the subject of the meeting reasonably coincides
with the subjects discussed or acted upon by the pazent governmental body.
Section 7. A public body s hall allow for the r ecording by audiotape, videotape, or
other electronic means of any open meeting. A public body may establish guidelines regazding
the manner in which such recording is conducted so as to minimize disruption to the meeting.
No audio recording of any meeting, record, or vote closed pursuant to the provisions of section
610.021 shall be permitted without permission of the public body; any person who violates this
provision shall be guilty of a class C misdemeanor.
Section 8. Any member of a public governmental body who transmits any message
relating to public business by electronic means shall also concurrently transmit that message to
either the member's public office computer or the custodian of records in the same format. The
provisions of this section shall only apply to messages sent to two or more members of that body
so that, when counting the sender, a majority of the body's members aze copied. Any such
message received by the custodian or at the member's office computer shall be a public record
subject to the exceptions above.
Section 9. The City Clerk shall be the custodian of records and will be responsible
for maintenance and control of all records. The custodian shall provide public access to all
public records as soon as possible but no later than the third business day following the date the
request is received by the custodian. If additional delay is necessary, the custodian shall give an
explanation for the delay and the date the record will be available for inspection.
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If a request for access is denied, the custodian shall provide, upon request, a written
statement of the grounds for such denial. Such statement shall cite the specific provision of law
under which access is denied and shall be furnished to the requester no later than the end of the
third business day following the date the request for the statement is received.
The custodian shall charge 10 cents per page. The custodian may charge for time spent
duplicating the records and for reseazch time spent fulfilling the request. The chazges for time
spent on duplication may not exceed the average hourly rate of pay for clerical staff, and the
chazges for reseazch cannot exceed the actual cost of reseazch time. The custodian may require
payment prior to duplicating copies.
Fees for providing access to public records maintained on computer facilities, recording,
tapes or disks, videotapes or films, pictures, maps, slides, graphics, illustrations or similaz audio
or visual items or devices, and for paper copies lazger than nine by fourteen inches shall include
only the cost of copies, staff time, which shall not exceed the average hourly rate of pay for staff
of the public governmental body required for making copies and programming, if necessary, and
the cost of the disk, tape, or other medium used for the duplication. Fees for maps, blueprints, or
plats that require special expertise to duplicate may include the actual rate of compensation for
the trained personnel required to duplicate such maps, blueprints, or plats. If programming is
required beyond the customary and usual level to comply with a request for records or
information, the fees for compliance may include the actual costs of such programming.
The custodian may designate deputy custodians in other City departments as appropriate.
Section 10. This Resolution shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage
and approval.
ADOPTED this 17th day of August, 2004.
Betty Burch
MAYOR
ATTEST:
Louise Rusick
CITY CLERK