[CC 1997 §2.56; Ord. No. 2852-97, 4-16-1997; Ord. No.
3026-99 §6, 1-6-1999; Ord. No. 3570-04 §6, 8-18-2004]
A.
All meetings,
records and votes are open to the public, except that any meeting,
record, minutes or vote relating to one (1) or more of the following
matters, as well as other materials designated elsewhere in this Article,
shall be closed unless the public governmental body votes to make
them public:
1.
Legal
actions, causes of action or litigation involving a public governmental
body and any confidential or privileged communications between a public
governmental body or its representatives and its attorneys. However,
any minutes, vote, or settlement agreement relating to legal actions,
causes of action, or litigation involving a public governmental body
or any agent or entity representing its interests or acting on its
behalf or with its authority, including any insurance company acting
on behalf of a public governmental body as its insured, shall be made
public upon final disposition of the matter voted upon or upon the
signing by the parties of the settlement agreement, unless prior to
final disposition, the settlement agreement is ordered closed by a
court after a written finding that the adverse impact to a plaintiff
or plaintiffs to the action clearly outweighs the public policy considerations
of Section 610.011, RSMo., however, the amount of any monies paid
by, or on behalf of, the public governmental body shall be disclosed;
provided however, in matters involving the exercise of the power of
eminent domain, the vote shall be announced or become public immediately
following the action on the motion to authorize institution of such
a legal action. Legal work product shall be considered a closed record.
2.
Leasing,
purchase or sale of real estate by a public governmental body where
public knowledge of the transaction might adversely affect the legal
consideration therefor. However, any minutes or vote or public record
approving a contract relating to the leasing, purchase or sale of
real estate by a public governmental body shall be made public upon
execution of the lease, purchase or sale of the real estate.
3.
Hiring,
firing, disciplining or promoting of particular employees by a public
governmental body when personal information about the employee is
discussed or recorded. However, any vote on a final decision, when
taken by a public governmental body, to hire, fire, promote or discipline
an employee of a public governmental body shall be made available
with a record of how each member voted to the public within seventy-two
(72) hours of the close of the meeting where such action occurs; provided
however, that any employee so affected shall be entitled to prompt
notice of such decision during the seventy-two (72) hour period before
such decision is made available to the public. As used in this Subsection,
the term "personal information" means information
relating to the performance or merit of individual employees.
4.
Non-judicial
mental or physical health proceedings involving identifiable persons,
including medical, psychiatric, psychological, or alcoholism or drug
dependency diagnosis or treatment.
5.
Testing
and examination materials, before the test or examination is given
or, if it is to be given again, before so given again.
6.
Welfare
cases of identifiable individuals.
7.
Preparation,
including any discussions or work product, on behalf of a public governmental
body or its representatives for negotiations with employee groups.
8.
Software
codes for electronic data processing and documentation thereof.
9.
Specifications
for competitive bidding, until either the specifications are officially
approved by the public governmental body or the specifications are
published for bid.
10.
Sealed
bids and related documents, until the bids are opened; and sealed
proposals and related documents or any documents related to a negotiated
contract until a contract is executed, or all proposals are rejected.
11.
Individually
identifiable personnel records, performance ratings or records pertaining
to employees or applicants for employment, except that this exemption
shall not apply to the names, positions, salaries and lengths of service
of officers and employees of public agencies once they are employed
as such. It is the policy of the City that no information relating
to present or past employees other than names, positions, salaries
and lengths of service shall be provided to any person or agency other
than as may be required in response to a subpoena lawfully issued
by a court of competent jurisdiction, or as otherwise may be required
by law.
12.
Records
which are protected from disclosure by law.
13.
Meetings
and public records relating to scientific and technological innovations
in which the owner has a proprietary interest.
14.
Records
relating to municipal hotlines established for the reporting of abuse
and wrongdoing; and
15.
Confidential
or privileged communications between a public governmental body and
its auditor, including all auditor work product; however, all final
audit reports issued by the auditor are to be considered open records
pursuant to this Chapter.
16.
Operational
guidelines and policies developed, adopted or maintained by any public
agency responsible for law enforcement, public safety, first response
or public health for use in responding to or preventing any critical
incident which is or appears to be terrorist in nature and which has
the potential to endanger individual or public safety or health. Nothing
in this exception shall be deemed to close information regarding expenditures,
purchases or contracts made by an agency in implementing these guidelines
or policies. When seeking to close information pursuant to this exception,
the agency shall affirmatively state in writing that disclosure would
impair its ability to protect the safety or health of persons and
shall in the same writing state that the public interest in non-disclosure
outweighs the public interest in disclosure of the records. This exception
shall expire and be of no further force or effect on December 31,
2008.
17.
Existing
or proposed security systems and structural plans of real property
owned or leased by a public governmental body and information that
is voluntarily submitted by a non-public entity owning or operating
an infrastructure to any public governmental body for use by that
body to devise plans for protection of that infrastructure, the public
disclosure of which would threaten public safety.
a.
Records
related to the procurement of or expenditures relating to security
systems purchased with public funds shall be open;
b.
When
seeking to close information pursuant to this exception, the public
governmental body shall affirmatively state in writing that disclosure
would impair the public governmental body's ability to protect the
security or safety of persons or real property and shall in the same
writing state that the public interest in non-disclosure outweighs
the public interest in disclosure of the records;
c.
Records
that are voluntarily submitted by a non-public entity shall be reviewed
by the receiving agency within ninety (90) days of submission to determine
if retention of the document is necessary in furtherance of a State
security interest. If retention is not necessary, the documents shall
be returned to the non-public governmental body or destroyed;
d.
This
exception shall expire and be of no further force or effect on December
31, 2008.
18.
Records
that identify the configuration of components or the operation of
a computer, computer system, computer network or telecommunications
network and would allow unauthorized access to or unlawful disruption
of a computer, computer system, computer network or telecommunications
network of a public governmental body. This exception shall not be
used to limit or deny access to otherwise public records in a file,
document, data file or database containing public records. Records
related to the procurement of or expenditures relating to such computer,
computer system, computer network or telecommunications network, including
the amount of monies paid by, or on behalf of, a public governmental
body for such computer, computer system, computer network or telecommunications
network shall be open.
19.
Credit
card numbers, personal identification numbers, digital certificates,
physical and virtual keys, access codes or authorization codes that
are used to protect the security of electronic transactions between
a public governmental body and a person or entity doing business with
a public governmental body. Nothing in this Section shall be deemed
to close the record of a person or entity using a credit card held
in the name of a public governmental body or any record of a transaction
made by a person using a credit card or other method of payment for
which reimbursement is made by a public governmental body.
[CC 1997 §2.57; Ord. No. 2852-97, 4-16-1997]
In order to allow the fullest cooperation by employees and members
of the public in investigation of matters wherein an employee of the
City is alleged to have engaged in any form of misconduct, all files,
records and documents relating to investigations of allegations of
misconduct by City employees will be considered to be personnel records
and shall be closed records under the custody of the respective department
head.
[CC 1997 §2.58; Ord. No. 2852-97, 4-16-1997]
A.
All information
obtained by the City regarding medical examinations, medical condition
or medical history of City employees or job applicants, if retained
by the City, shall be collected and maintained on separate forms and
in separate medical files and shall be treated as closed and confidential
records, except that:
1.
Supervisors
and managers may be informed regarding necessary restrictions on the
work duties of employees and necessary accommodations;
2.
First
aid and safety personnel may be informed, when appropriate, if the
information reflects the existence of a disability which might require
emergency treatment; or
3.
Government
officials investigating compliance with State or Federal law pertaining
to treatment of persons with disabilities may be allowed access to
such records.
[CC 1997 §2.59; Ord. No. 2852-97, 4-16-1997]
A.
In order
to protect reasonable expectations of privacy on the part of persons
having dealings with the City, City records containing information
or entries of a personal, confidential, private or proprietary nature,
including, but not limited to, income, sales data, financial circumstances,
household and family relationships, social security numbers, dates
of birth, insurance information and other information which reasonable
persons generally regard as private and not a customary subject for
public discourse, which information or entries have been provided
to the City by one complying with regulations requiring the disclosure
of such information, shall be excised from copies of City records
disclosed or provided to members of the public other than those persons
to whom the information of entries pertain. Persons desiring access
to information or entries excised from such records may file a supplementary
written request with the custodian of records for disclosure of material
to be specified in the request, which request should state:
B.
The custodian
of records may afford all interested parties, including the persons
to whom the information pertains, a reasonable time within which to
comment on the requested disclosure prior to acting further on the
request. If an interested person objects to the disclosure of the
requested information, the custodian of records may conduct a hearing
at which all interested parties may be heard. At such hearing the
custodian shall consider, among such other factors as may be reasonable
and relevant:
1.
The
requirements and intent of State law, City ordinances and this policy;
2.
The
legitimate expectations of privacy on the part of interested parties;
3.
The
personal, confidential, private or proprietary nature of the information
at issue;
4.
Whether
the information was obtained by the City under compulsion of law or
was freely and voluntarily provided by the persons objecting to the
disclosure; and
5.
The
public purposes to be served by disclosure of the requested information.
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If the custodian of records determines that disclosure is legally
required or would otherwise serve the best interests of the public
and that such requirements or purpose outweigh the legitimate concerns
or interests of the persons to whom the information pertains, the
custodian shall provide the requested information to the requesting
party.
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C.
In addition to or in lieu of the hearing described above, the custodian of records may afford all interested parties a reasonable opportunity to seek judicial review of or relief from the proposed disclosure. The custodian may also utilize the procedures for judicial determination and/or opinion solicitation provided in Section 120.130, below.
[CC 1997 §2.60; Ord. No. 2852-97, 4-16-1997]
If a public record contains material which is not exempt from
disclosure, as well as material which is exempt from disclosure, the
custodian shall separate the exempt and non-exempt material and make
the non-exempt material available for examination and copying in accord
with the policies provided herein. When designing a public record
the custodian shall, to the extent practicable, facilitate a separation
of exempt from non-exempt information. If the separation is readily
apparent to a person requesting to inspect or receive copies of the
form, the custodian shall generally describe the material exempted
unless that description would reveal the contents of the exempt information
and thus defeat the purpose of the exemption.
[CC 1997 §2.61; Ord. No. 2852-97, 4-16-1997; Ord. No.
3026-99 §7, 1-6-1999; Ord. No. 3570-04 §7, 8-18-2004]
A.
A public
governmental body proposing to hold a closed meeting or vote may do
so by either:
1.
Giving notice of same pursuant to Section 120.020 above along with reference to the specific exception allowing such a closed meeting under State law; or
2.
Upon
an affirmative public vote of the majority of a quorum of the public
governmental body. The vote of each member of the public governmental
body on the question of closing a public meeting or vote and the specific
reason for closing that public meeting or vote by reference to the
specific exception allowing such a closed meeting under State law
shall be announced publicly at an open meeting of the governmental
body and entered into the minutes.
B.
If a vote is taken at a closed meeting, minutes of the closed meeting, sufficient to reflect the vote pursuant to Section 120.030 above, shall be recorded.
C.
Any meeting
or vote closed pursuant to Section 610.021, RSMo., shall be closed
only to the extent necessary for the specific reason announced to
justify the closed meeting or vote. Public governmental bodies shall
not discuss any business in a closed meeting, record or vote which
does not directly relate to the specific reason announced to justify
the closed meeting or vote. Public governmental bodies holding a closed
meeting shall close only an existing portion of the meeting facility
necessary to house the members of the public governmental body in
the closed session, allowing members of the public to remain to attend
any subsequent open session held by the public governmental body following
the closed session.
D.
In the
event any member of a public governmental body makes a motion to close
a meeting, or a record, or a vote from the public and any other member
believes that such motion, if passed, would cause a meeting, record
or vote to be closed from the public in violation of any provision
in Chapter 610, RSMo., or this Chapter, such latter member shall state
his or her objection to the motion at or before the time the vote
is taken on the motion. The public governmental body shall enter in
the minutes of the public governmental body any objection made pursuant
to this Subsection. Any member making such an objection shall be allowed
to fully participate in any meeting, record or vote that is closed
from the public over the member's objection. In the event the objecting
member also voted in opposition to the motion to close the meeting,
record or vote at issue, the objection and vote of the member as entered
in the minutes shall be an absolute defense to any claim filed against
the objecting member pursuant to Chapter 610, RSMo.
[CC 1997 §2.62; Ord. No. 2852-97, 4-16-1997]
The City, or any of its public governmental bodies, or the custodian
of records, when in doubt about the legality of closing a particular
meeting, record, or vote, may bring suit at the expense of the City
in the Circuit Court of the County of St. Louis to ascertain the propriety
of any such action, or seek a formal opinion of the Attorney General
or of the City Attorney. In such events, the proposed closed meeting
or public access to the record or vote shall be deferred for a reasonable
time pending the outcome of the actions so taken.
[Ord. No. 3570-04 §8, 8-18-2004]
A.
Records
and information that have been closed pursuant to the provisions of
this Chapter, Chapter 610, RSMo., and other relevant State and Federal
laws and regulations are to be treated as confidential by all employees
and elected and appointed officials of the City.
B.
It shall
be grounds for disciplinary action for any employee to:
1.
Violate
the confidentiality relating to such records or information;
2.
Copy
or remove closed and/or confidential information without the specific
consent of the custodian thereof or in the normal course of performing
such employee's duties for the City;
3.
Provide
or discuss closed records or confidential information with any person
other than as a necessary part of performing such employee's duties
for the City; or
4.
Divulge,
discuss or disclose information or records addressed in any closed
meeting of a public governmental body, other than as a necessary part
of performing such employee's duties for the City.
C.
Elected
and appointed officials are also expected to maintain the same strict
standards of confidentiality required of employees. Breach of the
confidentiality standards established by this Chapter and required
of employees in this Section may be grounds for removal from office
or other sanctions as may be deemed appropriate by the body of which
such official is a member or by the City Council.
