City officials digging a deeper hole?
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July 17, 2013 |
Update; According to a trusted source,
neither city attorney was present following
adjournment of the city council meeting.
With the recent spate of bad news regarding the
governance of the City of Bonners Ferry, most
would think that city officials would be on their
best behavior. But based on reports of what
happened following adjournment of Tuesday
evening's city council meeting, that may not be
quite the case.
The State of Idaho is very serious in requiring
that the public's business be conducted in the
open, and that all interested citizens be
allowed to witness deliberations.
The state has a very clear set of rules on how
any public agency within the state conducts
business.
Idaho Code defines "public agency" as: (a) any
state board, commission, department, authority,
educational institution or other state agency
which is created by or pursuant to statute,
other than courts and their agencies and
divisions, and the judicial council, and the
district magistrates commission; (b) any
regional board, commission, department or
authority created by or pursuant to statute; (c)
any county, city, school district, special
district, or other municipal corporation or
political subdivision of the state of Idaho; (d)
any subagency of a public agency which is
created by or pursuant to statute, ordinance, or
other legislative act.
Pursuant to Idaho Code, all meetings of any
"governing body" of an Idaho public agency must be
conducted in public, with the exception of a few
limited circumstances warranting meeting behind
closed doors in executive session.
The state defines a governing body as, "the
members of any public agency which consists of
two (2) or more members, with the authority to
make decisions for or recommendations to a
public agency regarding any matter."
According to city resident Jerry Higgs, who
attended, Tuesday evening's city council meeting
was routine, nothing out of the ordinary. It
didn't get interesting, or suspicious, he said,
until after the meeting was formally adjourned.
No executive session, he said, was called.
Under nearly any competent definition,
"adjourned" means over, concluded. We're done,
let's go home.
According to Higgs, all those in attendance at
the meeting left council chambers, and several
of them gathered outside and discussed city
affairs for quite a while.
They noticed, he said, that they weren't
followed by the usual contingent of city
officials. Instead, they heard the door of city
hall being locked behind them.
According to reports, Mayor Dave Anderson,
council members Rick Alonzo, Tom Mayo and Connie
Wells remained behind the locked door, as did city
administrator Steve Boorman, and city clerk Kris Larson.
No one outside those locked doors know what
those inside talked about. For all intents and
purposes, they could have been having tea to
celebrate the impending birth of British
royalty.
Regardless of what went on behind those doors,
witnessed by several who heard the bolt slide
home and witnessed a quorum sitting in their
customary places, it flew in the face of the stern Idaho
stricture; "The people of the state of Idaho in
creating the instruments of government that
serve them, do not yield their sovereignty to
the agencies so created. Therefore, the
legislature finds and declares that it is the
policy of this state that the formation of
public policy is public business and shall not
be conducted in secret." IC 67-2340.
If the allegations are true, Idaho Code
63-2347 sets out a range of penalties,
nullifying any decisions rendered by the
governing board made behind those closed doors,
and providing various penalties for each
individual member of the governing board sitting
in violation of the statutes.
Allegations of violation of Idaho's open meeting
law all but demand that a criminal investigation
be launched, and opens the door for civil action
by any person affected against the governing
body as a whole and against each sitting member,
be they appointed or elected.
In Idaho, by law, serving the public is a
privilege. Election or appointment confers no
benefit but the opportunity to serve the
public's interest, openly and honestly, in full
view of those whom they serve. |
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