OPEN MEETINGS AND RECORDS POLICY

Revised September 2007

 

1.      All meetings, records and votes are open to the public, except the public government body is authorized to close meetings, records and votes, relate to the following:

 

a.       Legal actions, causes of action or litigation, and any confidential or privileged communications between a public governmental body or its representatives and its attorneys.  However, any minutes, vote or settlement relating to legal actions, causes of action or litigation involving a public governmental body or any agent or entity representing its interests or acting on behalf of a public government body as its insured, shall be made public upon final disposition of the matter voted upon on upon the signing by the parties of the settlement agreement, unless, prior to final disposition, the settlement agreement is ordered closed by a court after a written finding that the adverse impact to a plaintiff or plaintiffs to the action clearly outweighs the public policy considerations of  section 610.011 RSMo; however, the amount of any moneys paid by, or on behalf of the public governmental body shall be disclosed; 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.   Leasing, purchase or sale of real estate where public knowledge of the transaction might adversely affect the legal consideration therefore.  However, any minutes, vote or public record approving a contract relating to the leasing, purchase or sale of real estate by a public governmental body shall be made public upon execution of the lease, purchase or sale of the real estate.

 

c.       Hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting of particular employees when personal information about the employee is discussed or recorded.  However, any vote on a final decision, when taken, to hire, fire, promote or discipline an employee shall be made available with a record of how each member voted to the public 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.  Personal information means information relating to the performance or merit of individual employees.

 

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.        Welfare cases of identifiable individuals.

 

g.       Preparation, including any discussions or work product, on behalf of a public governmental body or its representatives for negotiation with employee groups.

 

h.       Software codes for electronic data processing and documentation thereof.

 

i.         Specifications for competitive bidding, until either the specifications are officially approved by the public governmental body or the specifications are published for bid.

 

j.        Sealed bids and related documents, until the bids are opened; and sealed proposals and related documents or any documents related to a negotiated contract until a contract is executed, or all proposals are 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.

 

l.         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.

 

 

 

2.      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 roll call 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.

 

 

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 as in (4) below.  No other business may be discussed in a closed meeting that does not directly relate to the specific reason announced to close the meeting to the public.

 

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 board 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 news media who requests notice of a particular meeting.

 

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 for the normal requirements shall be stated in the minutes.

 

6.      A formally constituted subunit of a parent 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 parent meeting and the subject acted upon by the parent governmental body.

 

7.      The City Clerk shall be the custodian of records and will be responsible for maintenance and control of all records.  No person shall remove original public records from the office of the custodian without written permission of the custodian. 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 records are requested in a certain format, the custodian shall provide the records in the requested format, if such format is available.  If access to the public record is not granted immediately, the custodian shall give a detailed explanation of the cause for further delay and the place and earliest time and date that the record will be available for inspection.  This period for document production may exceed three days for reasonable cause.

 

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 post a schedule of charges to be made for copies, maps, books, CDs, and fees charged for time spent researching and copying such records.  This schedule shall be updated from time to time as expenses dictate.

 

The custodian may designate deputy custodians as required.

 

 

8.   All records of the City which are permitted to be closed records by reason of the Sunshine Law or by any other statute of Missouri, or by any statute or regulation of the United States government shall be maintained as closed records.  No such closed record shall be released to any person who is not a part of the City government, except that the City’s auditor may see such records as are reasonably necessary to prepare an audit report as requested by the City and the City’s attorney may see such records as are reasonably necessary to represent the City.

 

OPEN RECORDS

 

The fee schedule for literature and copies effective April 9, 2007 is as follows:

 

            Comprehensive Plan Manual                                     $35.00

            Land Development Code Manual                             30.00

            LCD on CD                                                                10.00

            Maps:

                        11x17 (city only)                                                  1.00

                        17x22                                                                   5.00

                        24x36                                                                 10.00

                        30x42                                                                 15.00

                        36x48                                                                 20.00

                        Zoning                                                                 20.00

            Residential Construction Guidelines                                      5.00

            Technical Specifications Manual                            35.00

            TS Manual on CD                                                     10.00

            In-Car Camera Media Duplication on CD                      10.00

            Copies                                                                                .10

 

Hourly charges for research or document search shall be at the rate of $12.50 per hour for clerical personnel. Otherwise, the hourly charges will be individual pay scale plus benefits.