North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem issued an official opinion yesterday that an email discussion among Mandan, N.D. city commissioners violated North Dakota`s open meetings law. Stenehjem's legal opinion specifically says a series of email messages among members of a state governing board may constitute a meeting. Not only must the messages be available for inspection, commissioners may trigger the law's requirement of providing notice about a public meeting by exchanging a series of emails among themselves, as the Mandan commissioners did, Stenehjem said.
"Traditionally, people think of a meeting as a group of people who sit around a table and simultaneously discuss an issue and reach a conclusion," Stenehjem said in an interview with the Associated Press. "But that same kind of thing can happen by email."
The issue began with an email from Mandan city administrator Jim Neubauer to the five commissioners about an inquiry related to a building permit. Four of the five commissioners discussed Beehler`s request by exchanging emails during the evening of June 27 and the morning of June 28. Stenehjem's opinion says a city administrator may provide information to commission members without violating the law. However, the discussion afterwards constitutes a meeting.
This adds North Dakota to the growing list of states where officials believe that email correspondence to a majority of Board members constitutes a public meeting. (This blog has reported about open meeting and freedom of information act issues in Arizona, Arkansas, California, District of Columbia, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia.)
Subscribe by Email
