[Ord. No. 309 §§1 —
7, 12-16-1987; Ord. No.
04-05, 2-19-2004; Ord. No. 04-40, 8-19-2004; Ord. No. 10-15, 6-17-2010]
A. All
meetings, records and votes are open to the public, except the governmental
body may close any meeting, record or vote relating to the following:
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 vote relating to litigation involving a public
governmental body shall be made public upon final disposition of the
matter voted upon; 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. Lease, purchase or sale of real estate by a public governmental body
where public knowledge of the transaction might adversely affect the
legal consideration therefore. However, any vote or public record
approving a contract relating to the lease, purchase or sale of real
estate by a public governmental body shall be made public within seventy-two
(72) hours after execution of the lease, purchase or sale of the real
estate.
3. Hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting an employee of a public
governmental body. 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 must be made available to
the public with a record of how each member voted 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 before such decision is made available to the public.
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 earlier of either when
the bids are opened, or all bids are accepted or all bids 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.
12. Records that 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. Confidential or privileged communications between a public governmental
body and its auditor, including all auditor work product.
15. 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 sunset on December
31, 2008.
16. 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.
Records related to the procurement of or expenditures relating
to security systems purchased with public funds shall be open.
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.
Records that are voluntarily submitted by a non-public entity
shall be reviewed within ninety (90) days of submission to determine
if retention of the document is necessary in furtherance of a security
interest. If retention is not necessary, the documents shall be returned
to the non-public governmental body or destroyed.
17. 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.
18. 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.
B. All
records that may be closed hereby are deemed closed records unless
the governmental body votes to make them public. Before closing a
meeting to the public, a majority of a quorum of the governmental
body must vote to do so in a public vote. The vote of each member
of the governmental body on the question of closing the meeting or
vote and the reason for closing the meeting by reference to a specific
exception shall be announced at a public meeting and entered into
the minutes.
C. The governmental body shall give notice of the time, date and place of a closed meeting and the reason for holding it by reference to a specific exception. The notice shall be the same as in Subsection
(D) below. No other business may be discussed in a closed meeting which does not directly relate to the specific reason announced to close the meeting to the public. Public governmental bodies holding a closed meeting must 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. The
governmental body shall give notice of the time, date, place and tentative
agenda of each meeting. The notice shall be placed on the appropriate
bulletin board at City Hall at least twenty-four (24) hours, exclusive
of weekends and holidays, prior to the meeting. If an emergency makes
it impossible to give twenty-four (24) hours' notice, the reason must
be reflected in the minutes. Notice also shall be given to any representative
of the news media who requests notice of a particular meeting.
E. Each
meeting shall be held at a place reasonably accessible to the public
and at a time reasonably convenient to the public unless for good
cause such a place or time is impossible or impractical. When it is
necessary to hold a meeting on less than twenty-four (24) hours' notice,
or at a place that is not reasonably accessible to the public, or
at a time that is not reasonably convenient to the public, the nature
of the good cause justifying that departure form the normal requirements
shall be stated in the minutes.
F. A formally
constituted subunit of a parent governmental body may conduct a meeting
without notice during a lawful meeting of the parent governmental
body, a recess in that meeting or immediately following that meeting,
if the meeting of the subunit is publicly announced at the parent
meeting and the subject of the meeting reasonably coincides with the
subjects discussed or acted upon by the parent governmental body.
G. A public
body shall allow for the recording by audiotape, videotape or other
electronic means of any open meeting. A public body may establish
guidelines regarding the manner in which such recording is conducted
so as to minimize disruption to the meeting. No audio recording of
any meeting, record or vote closed pursuant to the provisions of Section
610.021, RSMo., shall be permitted without permission of the public
body; any person who violates this provision shall be guilty of a
Class C misdemeanor.
H. Any
member of a public 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 sent to two (2) or more members of that
body so that, when counting the sender, a majority of the body's members
are copied. Any such message received by the custodian or at the member's
office computer shall be a public record subject to the exceptions
above.
I. Custodian — Denial Of Request — Fees For Copies —
Deputy Custodians.
1. The City Clerk shall be the custodian of records and will be responsible
for maintenance and control of all records. The custodian shall provide
public access to all public records as soon as possible but no later
than the third (3rd) business day following the date the request is
received by the custodian. If additional delay is necessary, the custodian
shall give an explanation for the delay and the date the record will
be available for inspection.
2. If a request for access is denied, the custodian shall provide, upon
request, a written statement of the grounds for such denial. Such
statement shall cite the specific provision of law under which access
is denied and shall be furnished to the requester no later than the
end of the third (3rd) business day following the date the request
for the statement is received.
3. The custodian shall charge ten cents ($0.10) per page (for nine (9)
by fourteen (14) inch paper), the average Administration Department
employee hourly rate for duplication time and the actual cost of research
time. The custodian shall receive (or may require) payment prior to
duplicating copies.
4. Fees for providing access to public records maintained on computer
facilities, recording, tapes or disks, videotapes or films, pictures,
maps, slides, graphics, illustrations or similar audio or visual items
or devices and for paper copies larger than nine (9) by fourteen (14)
inches shall include only the cost of copies, staff time, which shall
not exceed the average hourly rate of pay for staff of the public
governmental body required for making copies and programming, if necessary,
and the cost of the disk, tape or other medium used for the duplication.
Fees for maps, blueprints or plats that require special expertise
to duplicate may include the actual rate of compensation for the trained
personnel required to duplicate such maps, blueprints or plats. If
programming is required beyond the customary and usual level to comply
with a request for records or information, the fees for compliance
may include the actual costs of such programming.
5. The custodian shall charge four dollars ($4.00) (for up to five (5)
pages plus ten cents ($.10) per page over five (5) pages) for Police
reports and four dollars ($4.00) for fingerprinting.
6. The custodian may designate deputy custodians in the other departments
of the City.