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Show 14 SPRINGVILLE HERALD Thursday, July 21, 2005 Audit: Districts abuse m e gsact Mark Thiessen pen meetings law, and four the associated press even bypass requirements of Most Utah school districts a closed meeting by cracking routinely abuse the state's pen a door, a legislative au- la LAWL JACKSON'S HOLE BIRTHDAY & BACK TO SCHOOL SALE! Our Biggest sale of the year! 5 Days Only! duly 26-30 'SILVER JEANS...I5 OFF! (this week only!) "ROxY SPORTSWEAR...! 5 OFF! "BACKPACKS & PURSES..15 OFF'. "PEASANT SKIRTS...I5 OFF! "JEWELRY & ACCESS0RIES...20 OFF! 'Long cap-sleeved layering tee's! 'Long tank top layering tee's ! "SUMMER CLEARANCE UP TO 75 OFF! ' 25 OFF , ' oy tingle ium t ' (reguLtr priced) t ' Exclude gym clviha Oat per bmucbold Lxpirn Aug. 23 i. 25 OFF ; i my tingle ircai i i (regular priced) , 1 Exciuiks $ym elutkes j i Lvyu'way. or fiol J ( . A..r iw hm.li..lii . ; 25 off ; , Dy kiagj item i , (rejjuijir priced) , 1 Liiyo-wuy, or hvtth t l Out per fcoiucliojd 1 I Expire Aug. 2j ' ditor said Thursday. The audit of 10 of Utah's 40 school districts found that most school boards do not keep adequate closed meeting meet-ing records, do not review the minutes and close meetings meet-ings to the public for questionable question-able reasons, making it difficult diffi-cult to tell if the topic was appropriate ap-propriate for a closed session. ses-sion. Boards are interpreting the Open Meetings Act in a variety vari-ety of ways, auditor Brian Dean told a legislative committee com-mittee Thursday. "School boards' actions do not comply with the law and raise concerns that school boards may be circumventing circumvent-ing the legislative intent of the open meetings act that the 'people's business' be done openly and in the public," pub-lic," the audit said. Utah law allows for boards to close their meetings to discuss dis-cuss an individual, collective bargaining, litigation, security, securi-ty, acquiring or selling property prop-erty and investigating allegations alle-gations of criminal misconduct. miscon-duct. Detailed records of these closed meetings must be kept unless it involves discussions dis-cussions of an individual or security. Those closed sessions only require the signature of the presiding officer on a note saying that was the closed session's sole purpose. The audit found four districts dis-tricts - Jordan, Nebp, North Sanpete and Iron County -kept no minutes of its closed meetings. The closed meeting records of four others - Salt Lake, Granite, Provo and Washington County - provided pro-vided insufficient summary detail. Only Tooele County and the Carbon School Districts Dis-tricts were in complete compliance com-pliance with the act, Dean said. Such records are important, impor-tant, Dean said, if the legality of the closed session was ever raised. If that happened, a judge would review the meeting record and determine deter-mine if it was legal. "The closed meeting records being maintained by most school boards are insufficient insuf-ficient for a judge to independently indepen-dently assess the legality of school boards' closed meeting meet-ing discussions," he said. He also raised concern over the frequency of the closed meetings, which averaged aver-aged one a month. The Iron County district held eight closed meetings GUNTHERS A I R 1 f "Serving You Since 1910" Most Air Conditioners cost 15-20 more to operate than they should. Let us show you how to get the efficiency you paid for. c; fdt" m if 4 if r t mm s&sf I m J kf " r - " C u. t ow 7 itTitiiii over the last 16 months, but the Washington County district dis-trict had about 32 closed meetings during the same time. The audit also found that inappropriate discussions -ones that should be held in open meetings - were occurring occur-ring in the closed sessions. "The extent of the problem is unknown for districts that don't keep closed meeting records," he said. School district officials say they have received insufficient insuffi-cient and inconsistent training train-ing on the legal requirements of closed meetings, and some suggested to the auditors that they were told summary minutes for closed meetings were acceptable and even preferred. "We view this advice as a direct contradiction to the Open Meetings Act," Dean said. There also were varying interpretations of what "detailed" "de-tailed" minutes meant, he said. Dean's recommendations included having the Legislature Legisla-ture clarify in statute what requirements are expected of districts for closed sessions, ses-sions, requiring school boards or superintendents to approve closed meeting minutes, min-utes, and considering methods meth-ods - even strengthening sanctions - to compel compliance. compli-ance. Dean also suggested having hav-ing the attorney general's office of-fice issue a directive to all public bodies covered by the act clearly spelling out legal requirement with an emphasis empha-sis on closed meeting requirements. re-quirements. The audit was forwarded to the interim education and legislative process committees commit-tees for further study. The Open Meetings Act governs sessions of public bodies and limits reasons they can close meetings to the public, listing procedures they must follow to do so. Audit clears Nebo School District f Amie Rose STAFF writer Nebo School District doesn't does-n't spend too much money, and the School Board doesn't meet outside the district. The Office of the Legislative Legisla-tive Auditor General gave its report on the Nebo School District on Thursday to a legislative leg-islative committee that had requested the audit after hearing concerns about the district's administrative controls. con-trols. The committee ordered the audit in December 2004. According Ac-cording to the minutes of that meeting, there were "allegations "al-legations of excessive spending spend-ing and district -related meetings meet-ings being held outside district dis-trict boundaries that inhibit public awareness of district meetings." The auditor compared the district in the report with two others about its size Salt Lake City and Washington Washing-ton County. The audit said Nebo spent significantly less money on travel; its superintendent is paid less than his counterpart counter-part in the Salt Lake City district; dis-trict; and that there was "no evidence that any board meeting has ever been held away from the district." The board does attend training sessions away from the district occasionally. Board President Kaye Westwood said she knew the audit was being done, but didn't know where the complaints com-plaints were coming from. The report did say that the district doesn't always comply com-ply with its own policy for travel outside of the state. It recommends the district require a travel authorization authoriza-tion form be submitted for prior approval when an employee em-ployee travels outside of the state or stays somewhere overnight; and that the superintendent su-perintendent give copies of approved travel request to the Nebo School Board. i IJipiiSSilpifiil: illlliMlSMl iljf if i n I J I H f i i t ii 1 . -I- Hi i tit f i 'WSm wamm & |