A.
Open Records; Exceptions. All meetings, records, and votes are open to the
public, except that any meeting, record, or vote relating to one (1)
or more of the matters set out in Section 610.021, RSMo., as well
as other materials designated elsewhere in the Sunshine Law, shall
be closed unless the Board of Aldermen votes to make such materials
public or a court of competent jurisdiction orders disclosure of such
closed record or vote, or as otherwise accessible pursuant to this
Chapter.
B.
Closed Meeting Procedure. Before closing
a meeting to the public, a majority of a quorum of the City Governmental
Body shall vote to do so in a public roll call vote. The vote of each
member of the City Governmental Body on the question of closing the
meeting and the reason for closing the meeting by reference to a specific
exception shall be announced at an open meeting of the City Governmental
Body and entered into the minutes. The vote of each member on the
question of closing the meeting or vote and the reason for closing
by reference to a specific exemption within Section 610.021 of the
Sunshine Law shall be announced at the open meeting of the City and
entered into the minutes. Every vote taken in a closed meeting, including
any vote taken to adjourn back to open session, shall be a roll call
vote. Any meeting or vote closed shall be closed only to the extent
necessary for the specific reason announced to justify the closed
meeting or vote. City Governmental Bodies shall not discuss any business
in a closed meeting or vote which does not directly relate to the
specific reason announced to justify the closed meeting or vote.
C.
Additional Closed Records. Pursuant to
Section 610.021 of the Sunshine Law, the following records, meetings,
and/or votes shall also be considered closed records:
1.
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 and records relating to investigations
of allegations of misconduct by City employees will be considered
to be personal information as defined by Section 610.021(3) of the
Sunshine Law and shall be closed records under the custody of the
Custodian of Records.
2.
All information obtained by the City
regarding medical examinations, medical condition, or medical history
of City employees or job applicants subject to confidentiality under
applicable federal and state laws, 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:
a.
Supervisors and managers, as well
as the Board and the City Attorney, may be informed regarding necessary
restrictions on the work duties of employees and necessary accommodations;
b.
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
c.
Government officials investigating
compliance with State or Federal law pertaining to treatment of persons
with disabilities may be allowed access to such records.
3.
Recognizing that, generally, trustees
of homeowners' associations in the City are volunteers who live in
a subdivision but serve with no remuneration, it is reasonable to
believe that they have an expectation of privacy over their personal
information. The Board finds that trustees who voluntarily provide
contact information to the City so that the City may be able to contact
the subdivision more effectively especially in cases concerning time-sensitive
information affecting that subdivision, do so with an expectation
of privacy and, therefore, such records with names and contact information
for all homeowners' associations, is hereby considered a closed record
pursuant to Section 610.021.14, RSMo., since such information is "otherwise
protected by law" through the constitutional right to privacy as reasoned
in Attorney General Opinion 95-2001 and City of Springfield v. Events
Publishing Co., LLC, 951 S.W.2d 366 (Mo. App. 1997), and, therefore,
shall not be subject to disclosure under Chapter 610, RSMo.
4.
Expectation Of Privacy; Requests.
a.
Pursuant to Section 610.021.14, RSMo.
and based on the reasoning within Attorney General Opinion 95-2001
and City of Springfield v. Events Publishing Co., LLC, 951 S.W.2d
366 (Mo. App. 1997), this policy hereby assumes that persons have
a reasonable expectation of privacy in City records containing information
or entries of a personal, confidential, private, or proprietary nature,
including, but not limited to, income, sales data, financial circumstances,
utility account numbers, and related personal information obtained
within City bills, 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 but which are requested as part of an
application or other dealings with the City. Accordingly, to protect
that reasonable expectations of privacy on the part of persons having
dealings with the City, City records containing the information similar
to the above, which have been provided to the City by one (1) complying
with regulations or applications requiring the disclosure of such
information, shall be, to the extent authorized by law, redacted from
copies of City records disclosed or provided to members of the public
other than those persons to whom the information or entries pertain.
Persons desiring access to information or entries redacted 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.
Such closed records may be unredacted
if the Board votes to make such closed records public or the City
is so ordered by a court of competent jurisdiction.
5.
Chapter 610, RSMo. recognizes that
votes on a final decision to demote, promote, hire, or terminate a
particular employee can result in various consequences, which is,
presumably, why Section 610.021(3) provides for seventy-two (72) hours
to pass before such vote has to be made available to the public. This
allows time for the employer to notify the affected employees of the
final action taken before everyone finds out. Based on this reasoning,
the Board of Aldermen hereby declares that a motion made to demote,
hire, fire, or promote an employee that fails and results in no final
action shall not be considered a vote on a final decision under Section
610.021(3) subject to the requirements of making such available for
disclosure since no action results from such failed vote and the Board
may always bring such failed vote back to the Board for a final decision
resulting in action. The policy rationale is that if a motion to discipline
an employee that fails, for example, has to be made available to the
public, such could result in more embarrassment and harm than the
failed discipline and, again, there is no final decision made since
no action results from the failed vote.
D.
Copyright Materials Submitted To The City.
Subject to the provisions for closed records, a person requesting
to inspect and copy public records retained by the City that are or
are reasonably believed by the Custodian of Records to be subject
to copyright protection may have access to and view those records,
provided that the requestor may not Copy or otherwise reproduce the
records unless:
1.
The requestor has received written
authorization from the copyright owner to reproduce the records and
has submitted the authorization to the Custodian of Records;
2.
The requestor is a law enforcement
agency or other Federal, State, or local governmental authority seeking
the records in furtherance of or and pursuant to an ongoing investigation;
or
3.
The Custodian of Records is ordered
by a court of competent jurisdiction to reproduce the records.
A.
In accordance with the Municipal Records
Retention Schedule established by the Local Records Board and published
by the Missouri Secretary of State under the Local Records Preservation
Program, the following are not considered records that need to be
retained and, therefore, it is the policy of the City not to retain:
1.
Law enforcement records of the St.
Louis County Police Department providing services to the City, including
arrest reports, incident reports, and investigative reports, which
are records of said department and not of the City. The Custodian
of Records is not the custodian of such records and shall direct individuals
requesting such records to the St. Louis County Police Department.
2.
Drafts, non-final versions of documents,
and other work product shall not constitute a "public record" unless
as otherwise required by law.
3.
Identical copies of documents maintained
in the same file.
4.
Extra copies of printed or processed
materials (official copies of which are retained by the Custodian
of Records).
5.
Superseded manuals and other directives
(maintained outside the office of record).
6.
Materials documenting employee fringe
activities (blood donors, charitable funds, social and professional
meetings, etc.).
7.
Drafts of reports or correspondence.
8.
Blank forms.
9.
Catalogs, trade journals, and other
publications or papers received from government agencies, commercial
firms, or private institutions that require no action and are not
part of a City transaction.
B.
Nothing in this Chapter shall be deemed
to require retention of a record not otherwise required by law to
be retained nor authorize destruction of any record required to be
maintained as required by the current Municipal Records Retention
Schedule established by the Local Records Board and published by the
Missouri Secretary of State under the Local Records Preservation Program
(incorporated herein by reference and published at the Secretary of
State's web page at http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/localrecs/schedule/).
A.
Electronic Mail Record. No record shall
be deemed to be an open record simply because such record is in the
format of electronic mail or other electronic format and shall be
subject to all provisions allowing for closure as may be provided
by law and in accordance with this Chapter.
B.
Electronic Email Public Record —
When. Any member of a City Governmental Body who transmits any message
relating to public business by electronic means shall also concurrently
transmit that message to either the member's public office computer
or the Custodian of Records in the same format. The provisions of
this Section shall only apply to messages where a majority of the
City Governmental Body's members are copied. Any such message received
by the Custodian or at the member's office computer shall be a record
subject to the exception of Section 610.021, RSMo.
C.
Electronic Mail Records Not Required To
Be Retained. In accordance with the Municipal Records Retention Schedule
established by the Local Records Board, the following are not considered
records that need to be retained and, therefore, it is the policy
of the City that the following shall not be required to be retained:
1.
General City email correspondence
regarding routine business activities (e.g., transmittal messages
read or received messages, or response to routine questions).
2.
List-serve messages, other than those
posted in an official capacity (unless the messages are relied upon
in the development of management, financial, operating procedures,
or other policy matters).
3.
Email messages, which, although having
an official context, are not part of a City transaction.
4.
Any email that is not created or
received in the course of routine or official municipal business (e.g.,
personal email).
5.
Any electronic correspondence that
has been "deleted" by the Custodian or other City employee or official,
although theoretically or actually remaining stored on a City computer's
hard drive, are not records retained by or of any City Governmental
Body and thus are not "public records" as that term is used in the
Sunshine Law and shall not be considered "retained" for purposes of
this Chapter.
6.
In lieu of retaining each email record
in a series (sometimes called a "chain" or "thread"), the Custodian
may retain only the "response" email record if that response contains
the original email text and any attachments as well as the origin
of the email including date and time (i.e., the response contains
all the information contained in the original email record).
D.
Electronic Services Provisions. Access
to any City record kept in an electronic format will, whenever feasible,
be provided to members of the public in an electronic format. The
City will attempt to make information available in usable electronic
formats to the greatest extent feasible. The activities authorized
pursuant to this Section may not take priority over the primary responsibilities
of the City. For purposes of this Section, the term "electronic services"
means on-line access or access via other electronic means to an electronic
file or data base. The City shall include in any contract for electronic
services provisions that protect the security and integrity of the
information system of the City and limit the liability of the City.
