By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Some of those attending the Friday night session of
Juab School District Board meeting thought the meeting had
been improperly advertised because it had not been posted at
the local market nor had it been advertised for 48 hours
prior to the meeting.
However, according to Utah Code&emdash;Title
52&emdash;Chapter 04&emdash;Open and Public Meetings,
52-4-6. Public notice of meetings, the law was met.
The law reads that: (1) Any
public body which holds regular meetings that are scheduled
in advance over the course of a year shall give public
notice at least once each year of its annual meeting
schedule as provided in this section. The public notice
shall specify the date, time, and place of such meetings.(2)
In addition to the notice requirements of Subsection (1) of
this section, each public body shall give not less than 24
hours' public notice of the agenda, date, time and place of
each of its meetings.
"We posted the notice of the meeting on the door of
our building," said Superintendent Kirk Wright.
"In addition, we posted it at the post office, at
Nephi, at Mona and at Levan, allowing for the 24-hour notice
requirement to be met," he said.
(3) Public notice shall be satisfied by:
(a) posting written notice at the principal office of
the public body, or if no such office exists, at the
building where the meeting is to be held; and
(b) providing notice to at least one newspaper of
general circulation within the geographic jurisdiction of
the public body, or to a local media correspondent. (Note
that the notice does not need to be published in the
newspaper if there is not enough time prior to the meeting.
It does need to be delivered to the media or a
correspondent.)
(4) Public bodies are encouraged to develop and use
electronic means to post notice in addition to those means
listed in Subsection (3).
(5) When 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, the
notice requirements of Subsection (2) may be disregarded and
the best notice practicable given. No such emergency meeting
of a public body shall be held unless an attempt has been
made to notify all of its members and a majority votes in
the affirmative to hold the meeting.
"The board meeting where a vote was taken to hold the
Friday special session was held on Wednesday and the meeting
was held on Friday at 6 p.m.," said Wright.
Following the law, he said, meant that the 6 p.m.
school board meeting on Wednesday, which did not end until 9
p.m., allowed ample time to post the notice and hold the
meeting after the prescribed amount of time.
Counting from 9 p.m. Wednesday to 9 p.m. Thursday
would have allowed 24 hours. Since the meeting was not held
until Friday, time was ample to allow notices to be posted
Thursday morning.
Many districts throughout Utah encourage public
participation by posting notices at post offices.
In addition to newspapers and post offices, some
school districts post meeting notices on the Internet along
with copies of minutes and other information that might be
of interest to the community.
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