Unannounced meeting is ruled out of order
A meeting of the city Common Council’s Finance and Audit Committee that was held in violation of the state’s Open Meetings Law was deemed out of order by the council president.
During a Common Council meeting Tuesday night, President James Noble said it had come to his attention the legislative body had been lax about resolving certain issues in committee and, instead, referring those matters to caucus. He said that led to a situation where the council did not meet the requirements of the state Open Meetings Law. As a result, Noble said he had to rule the previous evening’s Finance and Audit Committee meeting out of order.
Council members had met Monday evening for a caucus but ended up adjourning that meeting to hold an impromptu Finance and Audit Committee meeting that had not been scheduled. Since the meeting was not previously planned, there was no public notice of its occurrence, a violation of the state Open Meetings Law.
The five-member committee, chaired by Alderman Douglas Koop, DWard 2, had discussed and adopted a resolution authorizing $42,672 to be taken from the city’s 2016 contingency fund to cover cost overruns in the corporation counsel’s budget due largely to ongoing litigation.
After Noble determined the committee had been out of order, council Majority Leader William Carey, D-Ward 5, moved to suspend the council’s rules of order to consider the bud-
get resolution anyway. All the members in attendance supported Carey’s request.
Noble said suspending the rules of order meant the council could vote on the budget resolution without a report from the Finance and Audit Committee.
This is not the first time the council has suspended its rules of order to address
late resolutions.
“We need to be more diligent getting our paperwork in in a timely manner,” said Minority Leader Deborah Brown, R-Ward 9. “Department heads have to be sure things are ready when they know [when] the meetings are.” She said handling these issues on a last-minute basis defeats the purpose of notifying the public.
Noble said he would send out a memo to city staff and committee chairmen about
procedure.
The council ultimately voted 8-0 to adopt the resolution concerning the
corporation counsel’s 2016 budget.
Alderwoman Lynn Eckert, D-Ward 1, was absent.