By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
The law requires that written minutes and a recording are to be taken and kept of all public meetings.
Eric Todd Johnson, Mona City Attorney, with Blaisdell, Church & Johnson, Salt Lake City, attended Mona City Council meeting to discuss the open and public meetings law.
"Both the minutes and tapes are public records and must be made available to the public within a reasonable time following the meeting," said Johnson. "The recording must be available within three days following the meeting."
Each city and town is required to establish a policy about how minutes are to be approved.
Once a city recorder, town clerk, or clerk of a meeting get the minutes written and they are given to the members of the city council for their review, they must also be given to the public. They can be labeled as draft minutes subject to change.
The minutes of open meetings must include certain minimal detail.
They must Include the date, time, and place of the meeting; the names of members present and absent; the substance of all matters proposed, discussed, or decided; a record, by individual members, of votes taken; the name of each person who provided testimony and the substance in brief of their testimony; and any other information that any member requests be entered in the minutes or recording that is a record of what went on in the meeting.
"Written minutes may be kept and a digital or tape recording must also be kept of closed meetings," said Johnson.
The open portion of the meeting minutes when the closed meeting is voted for must include the date, time, and place of the meeting, the names of the members present and absent and the names of other persons present except where disclosure would infringe on the confidence necessary to fulfill the purpose of closing the meeting.
The open session minutes are public records and are available to the public.
"The public also has the right to record any open meeting," said Johnson.
This recording could include either audio recording or video recording of the meeting but it should not interfere with the meeting.
"The closed portion of the meeting must also be tape recorded," said Johnson.
These tape recordings and minutes are protected records under the Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) and should not become public except as provided in the Act.
The exception to recording all meetings those in which the competence or physical or mental health of an individual or the deployment of security devices is discussed.
The council can then choose to have the mayor sign a sworn affidavit affirming that the sole purpose for closing the meeting was to discuss only those issues.
"The tape recorder can then be turned off," said Johnson.
The purpose for this exception is that when discussing an individual, frank and open discussions are important and the presence of a tape recording device or minutes may impede the exchange of ideas.
If individuals are meeting to discuss deployment of security personnel or devices, it may very well compromise the security of these devices to have a tape recording or detailed minutes available.
The purpose of requiring the tape recording of the other types of closed meetings is also two fold. Protected records under the Government Records Access and Management Act will eventually become public records when the reason for the protection is removed.
Any person who thinks there has been a violation of the law regarding the closed meeting has a right to take the tape recording or the detailed minutes and have a judge review what went on. If the judge determines that the public body discussed matters in the closed session that were inappropriate, he will then make these matters public.
The Attorney General and county attorneys are charged with enforcing the Open and Public Meetings Act.
Private individuals can enforce these acts by bringing suit. They may bring suit to enjoin or force compliance with provisions of the Act. If the private individuals prevail, the court may award reasonable attorneys fees and court costs to the successful plaintiffs.
If any person intentionally violates any provision of the Act regarding closed meetings that person can be found guilty of a class B misdemeanor.
The Utah Open and Public Meetings Act also provide the minimum notice for a public meeting.
A public body shall give not less than 24 hours public notice of each meeting including the meeting agenda, date, time, and place.
In addition to these requirements a public body which holds regular meetings that are scheduled in advance over the course of a year must give public notice at least once each year of its annual meeting schedule by giving notice of the date, time, and place of the scheduled meetings.
This notice is satisfied by posting written notice at the principal office of the council, at the building where the meeting is to be held; on the Utah Public Notice Website or by providing notice to at least one newspaper of general circulation within the geographic jurisdiction of the public body or to a local media correspondent.
A public body is encouraged to develop and use electronic means to provide notice of its meetings. The public body must also provide public notice to all other media agencies that make a periodic written request to receive them and post public notice of its meetings on the Internet.
The notice requirements may be disregarded if, because of unforeseen circumstances, it is necessary for a public body to hold an emergency meeting to consider matters of an emergency or urgent nature and the best notice practicable is given.
A public body may not consider a topic in an open meeting that is not listed under an agenda item included with the advanced public notice. However a topic not listed on the open meeting agenda that is raised during an open meeting may be discussed but no final action may be taken by the public body during that meeting.
It is not appropriate for members of public bodies such as city councils and planning commissions to conduct their deliberations privately and then in the public meeting just perfunctorily hold the vote.
"It gives people transparency," said Johnson.
