Freedom Of Information Act Must Be Followed
There appears to be some confusion regarding Montana’s open meeting rules as evidenced by a couple of recent meetings in Roosevelt County.
Earlier this year, Roosevelt County commissioners added an item about employee stipends to its agenda despite not providing 48-hour notice. Since that time, the Northern Plains Independent has expressed its feeling that the matter wasn’t properly posted and the hope that commissioners will be more careful in the future by following the Montana Freedom of Information Act. Commissioners appeared to take the comment in an agreeable fashion.
Last week, a Wolf Point School board trustee attempted to add an item to the agenda on the last minute. It is admirable that board chair Linda L. Hansen stood her ground by following the law and not allowing the item to be added. Wolf Point Superintendent of Schools Loverty Erickson confirmed the decision by contacting the Montana School Board Association.
Citizens have a right to know when a public body will meet and what items will be discussed. Without that information, public officials aren’t correctly performing the duties they were elected for by the taxpayers that they are representing.
Other important information for citizens and officials to remember from the Montana Freedom of Information Hotline’s website includes:
•All meetings of governmental bodies of the state, political subdivisions or organizations supported in whole or in part by public funds shall be open to the public, including committee and subcommittees.
•Public bodies cannot discuss matters that are not on the agenda. The right to observe decision-making activities of a public body is conditioned on the public having advanced notice of the topic of the discussion. When a body discusses matters which were not on the agenda, both the right to observe and the right to participate are violated.
•A public body cannot meet without giving public notice. The Montana Supreme Court has ruled that without public notice, an open meeting is open in theory only, not in practice. In Seliski v. Rosebud County, a district judge found that a county commission’s practice of conducting meetings on regular business days from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. without notice of when particular matters would be discussed, was “really no notice at all” and violated the Public Participation in Government Act.
•Meetings of public agencies and certain associations of public agencies must be open to the public. These include public or governmental bodies, boards, bureaus, commissions, agencies of the state or any political subdivision of the state or organizations or agencies supported in whole or in part by public funds or expending public funds. Further, any committee or subcommittee appointed by a public body for the purpose of conducting business which is within the jurisdiction of that agency is subject to the requirements of the Open Meetings Act.
