OCR Text |
Show oipy ail in court, and a decision is handed down by the courts, there is no evidence of any wrongdoing, and you are urged to withhold judgment.) Wilson presented the following fol-lowing letter, requesting that it be placed in the minutes copy of the agenda and notice of the meeting. "In an unforeseen emergency, emer-gency, or for special meetings, meet-ings, the act allows you to omit subsection 2, but the agenda, and notice to news media in subsection 3, and b, must still be adhered to. Subsection 4 provides that such meeting cannot take place without attempting to contact all members, and a majority agrees to hold the meeting. "Closed meetings may be held, but not without complying com-plying with section 52-4-6. In such open meeting for certain circumstances, a closed meeting may be held, but the purpose of the closed meeting must be stated in open meeting, and two -thirds of the members present (must be a quorum) must vote to hold a closed meeting. Their names and how they vote must be recorded, in the m inutes of this open meeting. "This act specifically pro vides for the taking of written writ-ten minutes, and what must be recorded in the minutes for both open and closed meetings. These minutes must be made available, and public record within a reasonable rea-sonable time. Section 52-4 52-4 -6, subsection 1 through 7, provide this information. "At the last city council meeting it was admitted that a closed meeting was held. M ayor Young said no minutes were kept. There was no open meeting to determine the need for a closed meeting, and the proper notification was not made, the media was not notified, nor an agenda posted. "All of the above would be in violation of the Open and Public Meetings Act.. However, How-ever, the COUNTY NEWS later learned that minutes were kept, though there is a question as to whether they were saved or destroyed. "In view of the above, the (Continued on Page 2) Red Wilson, Editor of the COUNTY NEWS, challenged the minutes of the previous meeting as not being consistent consis-tent with the actual meeting, and then presented a letter on non-compliance, with the Open and Public Meetings Act. Riley Draper, consultant consult-ant with Kaiserman Assoc., the consulting engineers hired by the city, explained what the firm was doing for Milford City. Wilson objected to the wording of the resolution passed at the last meeting, which he contended had gained gain-ed several words, from what Mayor Young had actually said in the meeting. Councilman Pettey quickly showed a copy of the resolution reso-lution to Wilson, which he said had been handed to each member of the council just before the Mayor asked for a motion on the resolution. He stated it had been read from that paper. Wilson, however, stated that he had neither seen copies of the resolution or heard it read, but had written word for word what the Mayor May-or had said. Wilson contended that a portion of the resolution was left out when the Mayor voiced voic-ed the resolution, and in the motion made by Hanley. (The COUNTY NEWS urges citizens to note that no charges have been filed, either civil or criminal, at this time. It is possible that either civil or criminal action . may be filed separately, sepa-rately, or not at all. Until such charges are filed, heard to be available to future councils: ' Mayor Young and City Council: "The COUNTY NEWS finds Milford City negligent and in non-compliance with the "Open and Public Meetings Act", as amended by the Utah Legislature and passed March 2, 1977. "Since theCOUNTYNEWS has no reason to suspect that MilfordCity intentionally intentional-ly is attempting to circum -vent the law, this letter will serve to point out those areas in which you are in noncompliance. non-compliance. The law specifically provides pro-vides for notice of all meetings. meet-ings. This can be done once a year for all regular meetings meet-ings of the city council. Strict interpretation of subsection one, Section 52-4-6, is that ' this annual notice should be published. The Beaver County Coun-ty School Board and the County Commission have adopted that procedure. "Subsection 2 of 52-4-6 provides pro-vides that reasonable notice of the agenda, date, time, place of each meeting will be "given. This would include meetings of most public appointed ap-pointed bodies such as the Planning Commission, TV Committee and any others dealing with city money, and or affecting city laws and regulations. "Milford City has been posting post-ing an agenda in the city office, of-fice, however, Section 3, subsection sub-section b, provides that in addition to posting of such notice the local news media must also be submitted a HERE'S MORE ABOUT CITY COUNCIL COUNTY NEWS, not wishing to add to the city's burden, has asked the County Attorney, At-torney, who is charged with enforcement of the Act, to not take any steps other than to acquaint the council with the act and advise them that compliance will be expected henceforth. "In the last four years, the COUNTY NEWS reporter report-er has seen many decisions ratified by motion in city council, decisions which obviously ob-viously were made previous to the meeting. The Act specifically spe-cifically provides that chance meetings and political rallies ral-lies shall not be used to circumvent cir-cumvent the rules of the Open and Public Meetings Act. "In the instant matter, the council evidently felt they were acting on attorney's advice, ad-vice, and in accordance with the law. My advice is that they hire council who they may sit down with and ask their own questions, and get direct answers, rather than second-hand. Whether this be the CityAttorney, counsel authorized. the Mayor in this matter of the audit, or legal counsel of their own,' is a decision they should make. "It seems to this writer that council has put far too much faith in second-hand information, and we must remind the council that auditors audi-tors are not attorneys." "Sincerely, N. E. Wilson Editor and Publisher Beaver County News" Mayor Young questioned what constituted a public meeting. Wilson read from the law that a public meeting means the convening of a public body, with a quorum present, whether corporal or by means of electronic equipment, equip-ment, for the purpose of discussing dis-cussing or actingupon a matter mat-ter over which the public body has jurisdiction or advisory power. Wilson said that he had noted several times In the past where the city had been in non-compliance, but the c ity had not acquainted them -selves with the law. He said such omissions would not be tolerated any longer. Riley Draper of Kaiser -man Assoc. said that the planning study on Milford's water, sewer and storm drains was complete. He had a copy, and the city had a copy, but the Council was not aware of it. Draper said until it receives approval of the Four Corners Adm., which funded the $28,000 study and Milford City approved it, it should not be released indiscriminately. Draper said applications were in for a $360,000 grant for a storage tank, well and transmission line for the water system. He lauded his firm's ability to get federal funds. Councilman Pettey asked the status of chlorinatlon, stating on Sept. 10th the Council had acted to proceed with the chlorinatlon of Mil-ford's Mil-ford's water system. Draper squirmed a little, saying the State Health Dept. had, after receiving the city's letter of committment, made more tests trying to isolate the bacteria. During this period they had not followed through, and had released the city from the ."unapproved ."unap-proved classification", to "classification pending". He said that he and Mayor Young had dragged their feet on proceeding with chlorinatlon. chlorina-tlon. Mayor Young said that it was over now, they had notified noti-fied him last Thursday that the city must proceed with chlorinatlon. He said the city did not have the money, and would have to find it. In other business, it was learned that Councilman Pettey Pet-tey had chosen to advertise the lighting contest by letter. let-ter. Who he had sent the letters to were his own judgment judg-ment and it was noted by council that many organizations organiza-tions had not received letters, let-ters, and no one present had seen one except Pettey. Lillian Cook's airport manager contract was extended ex-tended another year. An application for city license li-cense for Tower Products was approved. However, It prompted Pettey to recommend recom-mend that the license fees be re -evaluated throughout the city. He recommended it become an item on a future fu-ture agenda, after some discussion. dis-cussion. Discussion of a Christmas Christ-mas bonus for city employees employ-ees brought on discussion of abuses of sick leave, and the excessive costs of the audit and chlorinatlon were noted as it was tabled until next meeting. |