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Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Ind. Gov't. - Bill prohibiting serial meetings introduced in House this year

In the past two sessions, Senator Beverly Gard has introduced and had passed by the Senate a bill prohibiting serial meetings, only to see it die without even a committee hearing in the House. (See long list of ILB entries re "serial meeting" here.) This year, according to a report yesterday by Bryan Corbin of the Evansville Courier&Press, a similar bill has been introduced in the House. Some quotes:

A Southwestern Indiana legislator is trying to prohibit government boards from holding "serial meetings" n that is, circumventing the Open Door Law by gathering in small groups to conduct public business, behind closed doors and without having a quorum.

The best-known example occurred in September 2000 when the Indiana University board of trustees divided into two groups to discuss termination of then-Coach Bob Knight and avoided triggering the state public-meeting requirement.

State Rep. Russell Stilwell, D-Boonville, said he is introducing a bill to close the serial-meetings loophole. * * *

Stephen Key, general counsel for the Hoosier State Press Association, said serial meetings occur when members of a government board - such as a city council, school board or university trustees - subdivide into groups of less than a quorum, and then conduct business in private that legally ought to be conducted in public. To get around the law, one board member might meet individually with other board members, but not with the quorum of the entire board simultaneously, and yet make decisions collectively.

"Under the fashion they are doing it, they can look citizens in the eye and say, 'We didn't violate the Open Door Law because we never had a meeting,'" Key said. "Invariably, the discussion or subject matter of these serial meetings is information that if they had a quorum present at one time, it would have to be done in an open meeting where the public could observe the discussion."

When members of the IU board of trustees met informally with then-IU President Myles Brand at his home Sept. 9, 2000, and discussed Knight's possible termination, Brand had four trustees gather in one room, and four in another. Brand later testified in a lawsuit that he deliberately gathered fewer than a quorum and briefed the two groups separately, in order "to exclude any impropriety with respect to the Open Door Act," court records said.

In a decision on the trustee lawsuit last June 2, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled that because there was not a quorum, the trustees' gatherings did not constitute a "meeting" under the Open Door Law, and so were not prohibited. But the appeals court found the IU trustees acted "in direct contravention to the public policy behind the Open Door Law," which requires that conclusive government action take place in public.

Stilwell's bill aims to close that loophole. It would apply not just to public university trustees but to other governmental boards, such as town councils, school boards and city or county councils. "That doesn't mean they can't caucus or chat with other members of the commission; it means they cannot have serial meetings," Stilwell said.

If the loophole were closed, Key said, then the public would have legal remedies under the Open Door Law if a serial-meeting violation occurred: Citizens could file a lawsuit in court and ask the judge to declare the board's action illegal, seek an injunction to undo the action or prohibit further violations, and seek attorney's fees, Key said.

Stilwell's bill is similar to one authored the past two years by state Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield. Gard's proposal passed last session in Republican-controlled state Senate, 48-2, but did not receive a hearing in the Indiana House. Stilwell, whose party retook control of the House in the Nov. 7 election, is optimistic that his serial-meetings bill will get a House hearing this year.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 20, 2006 07:24 AM
Posted to Indiana Government