Round and round we go

Posted 11/29/22

Pierce County Board debates meeting notice rules Gone are the days when Pierce County Board meetings were less than half an hour long. Now they often stretch out for two to three hours, as was the …

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Round and round we go

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Pierce County Board debates meeting notice rules

Gone are the days when Pierce County Board meetings were less than half an hour long. Now they often stretch out for two to three hours, as was the case with the Nov. 15 meeting at which the board at great length debated an ordinance aimed at protecting supervisors from committing an open meetings law violation.

All joking about meeting length aside, the board was asked to vote on an ordinance to amend Pierce County code to ensure compliance with open meetings laws and protect against a quorum of additional committees. After a long, convoluted and confusing discussion and multiple amendments proposed, the board ultimately unanimously approved the original proposal, which will require supervisors to give the committee chair three business days’ notice that he or she plans to attend a committee meeting. This gives the chair ample time to post a possible county board quorum notice, which is required by state law.

According to a memo in the board packet, supervisors often like to attend meetings of committees of which they’re not members (for example, Human Services, Board of Health, Land Management, etc.) Usually this isn’t an issue, but if enough supervisors attend a committee meeting, a quorum may be present. A quorum is when at least one half or more of a governing body’s members are in attendance.

“As an example, if too many nonmember supervisors attend a Finance & Personnel Committee meeting, a quorum of the County Board may be in attendance, which in turn requires a posting of an agenda for the resulting County Board meeting in order to be in compliance with the open meetings laws,” the memo states.

If an agenda isn’t posted, noncompliance with open meetings laws could occur, which could subject supervisors to legal repercussions under state law.

Oftentimes, the committee chair won’t know there’s a quorum until the meeting is called to order. If supervisors have to be asked to leave to avoid a quorum, this disrupts meetings. According to Corporation Counsel Brad Lawrence, some counties adopt a rule that supervisors are required to give notice if they plan on attending a committee meeting of which they’re not a member, which allows the chair to post if a quorum will be present or not.

Board Chair Jon Aubart said that F& P is the committee most affected by a potential county board quorum, since seven county board members already sit on F& P and nine supervisors being present would be a quorum.

Pierce County Clerk Jamie Feuerhelm typically posts meetings one week in advance, except if a special meeting is called, which requires 24 hours notice.

“It’s an open meetings violation if there is a quorum and it’s not posted as a county board meeting,” said Lawrence at the October county board meeting. “In fact, we’ve done that several times. This is not a new issue. Several counties have this in place.”

Supervisor Sheila Lorentz said in October that she didn’t understand why a quorum of supervisors attending a committee meeting is a problem.

“If extra people that come to the meeting aren’t on F& P and can’t vote, then I don’t understand why it’s not okay to come and attend the meeting,” she said. “What is the purpose of the law?”

“You could influence or contribute to the discussion,” said Supervisor Mike Kahlow. “Why even vote with the full board then? Decisions have to be made at the noticed meeting so the public can attend, so the decision is not already pre-ordained.”

Supervisor Melissa Petersen felt the code change could prohibit supervisors from attending other meetings, but Lawrence said that’s not the intent at all. It’s to make sure supervisors aren’t committing open meetings violations. Petersen proposed an amendment changing the notification requirement of supervisors to the committee chair to be 72 hours, but Supervisor Mel Pittman questioned how that would work when a committee meeting is called on a Monday and the Friday prior is a holiday.

“How do we work with holidays then over a long weekend when staff aren’t present in the 72-hour period?” Pittman asked. “Maybe change it to a 48-hour (two business days) time period instead. Also, for some of us who are busy, employed, whatever, sometimes we may not know our schedule getting closer to the time period of the meeting.”

For special or short notice meetings, might we be considering an opportunity that it’s published as a county board meeting so not to run into the problem of a quorum? Pittman asked.

“We should not be doing anything to prohibit supervisors from attending any county meeting,” he said.

Petersen liked Pittman’s change to her amendment.

“The point is that we want to inform the public and we’re not trying to keep people out of the meetings per se,” she said. “There’s a small number of instances where it would happen.”

Feuerhelm said it’s not typical to run into instances where an emergency F& P meeting is called.

“We try to get those notices and agendas posted at least a week ahead of time,” he said. “Any governmental body chair should know when there is a three-day weekend and it may not be the wisest time to have the meeting. The reason this has all come about is so the public is still notified ahead of time and we certainly don’t want to disclude any supervisors from attending.”

Chair Jon Aubart reiterated the change has nothing to do with the public’s access to the meeting.

“Supervisors will be fined if there is a quorum and it wasn’t properly noticed,” he said. “Supervisors have been asked to leave before so there wasn’t a quorum since it wasn’t noticed. It’s to allow them to come, not prevent them from coming.”

Petersen asked for more time to review options before a vote, but Aubart denied her request.

“We’re going to vote on it today, but we can always come back and revise it,” he said.

Petersen then asked if any agenda is posted for less than 72 hours, that it gets noticed automatically as a county board meeting, which would save a lot of effort.

“It would save last-minute problems of people maybe not being able to attend,” she said.

Pittman agreed with that amendment to her amendment, but so many motions and amendments had been proposed at that point that the board took a break to figure out what motion was on the table.

After the break, Petersen asked her fellow supervisors to vote down her amendment in order to allow her to add an email provision. They did as requested and she proposed yet another amendment to require the clerk to provide email notices to supervisors when a last-minute meeting is posted.

Lawrence questioned the need for the email provision and Kahlow agreed. “I believe that if we start wordsmithing too much, we’ll box ourselves into a corner and unforeseen circumstances,” Kahlow said. “The clerk is agreeable and will let us know. There’s no reason to put it in county code.”

Pittman had his own concerns still not answered.

“How does this allow any supervisor to attend the meeting on short notice? We might not see email and be able to notify the chairman 24 hours ahead of time. I’m worried supervisors will still be prohibited,” he said.

“Has any of this discussion changed your mind from what you originally proposed?” Supervisor Scott Bjork asked.

“What if someone forgets to send an email or an email isn’t working?” Supervisor Neil Gulbranson posed.

The board struck down Petersen’s amendment 14-3, with Petersen, Lorentz and Dean Bergseng voting in favor. Petersen’s first amendment also failed, with the same three supervisors voting in favor of it.

Back to the original proposed ordinance, Kahlow proposed following Pittman’s suggestion to replace 72 hours for three working business days as the requirement for supervisors to let a chair know of their attendance.

The board unanimously approved the original ordinance, which will require supervisors to give a chair three working business days’ notice if they plan to attend a committee meeting.

Other business

The board approved the following resolutions and business items:

• To transfer $247,000 undesignated general fund dollars to the maintenance department for the communication tower shelter replacement project. Bids came back $246,896 higher than expected due to rising costs.

• To pay claims for listing dogs, which is 50 cents per dog to local municipalities, totaling $1,529.

• To pay municipalities for care of soldiers’ graves. At $3 per grave, the total paid out is $7,302.

• Authorize new positions for 2023, as previously reported.

• Establish salaries and benefits for designated employees for 2023.

• Approve the 2023 tax levy and budget, as previously reported.

• Authorize cancellation of outstanding county orders.

• Authorization to use jail assessment fund for Guard 1 Real Time Inmate Tracking System.

• Appointment of Jeff Holst, Town of Diamond Bluff, to replace Matthew Purfeerst on the Board of Adjustment through June 30, 2024.