6 (b) Open Meeting Law - Discussion

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RELEVANT LINKS: Because this decision is unpublished, it is not binding on other courts. In addition,the outcome of this decision might have been different if the substance of the emails had related to something other than operational matters, for example, if the emails were attempting to build agreement on a particular issue that was going to be presented to the town board at a future meeting. Minn.Stat.§ 13D.065. In 2014,the open meeting law was amended to provide that"the use of social media by members of a public body does not violate the open meeting law as long as the social media use is limited to exchanges with all members of the general public."Email is not considered a type of social media under the new law. The open meeting law does not define the term"social media,"but this term is generally understood to mean forms of electronic communication, including websites for social networking like Facebook, Linkedln, and MySpace as well as blogs and microblogs like Twitter through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, and other content. It is important to remember that the use of social media by city councilmembers could result in other claims, in addition to open meeting law claims, such as claims of defamation or of bias in decision making. As a result, councilmembers should make sure that any comments they make on social media are factually correct,and they should not make any comments demonstrating bias on issues that will come before the council in the future for a quasi-judicial decision, such as the consideration of whether to grant an application for a conditional use permit. Moberg v.lndep.Sch.Disd. It is also important to remember that serial discussions between less than a No.281,336 N.W.2d 510 (Minn. 1983).See Section 11. quorum of a public body that is subject to the open meeting law could G.6.-Serial meetings. violate the open meeting law under certain circumstances.Therefore, city councils and other groups to which the open meeting law applies should take a conservative approach and avoid using letters,telephone conversations, email,and other such technology if the following circumstances exist: • A quorum of the council will be contacted regarding the same matter. • City business is being discussed. Minn.Stat.§13.02,subd.7. Another thing councilmembers should be careful about is which email account they use to receive emails relating to city business because such emails would likely be considered government data that are subject to a public-records request under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (MGDPA).The best option would be for each councilmember to have an individual email account that the city provides and city staff manage. However,this is not always possible for cities due to budget, size, or logistics. League of Minnesota Cities Information Memo: 11/9/2015 Meetings of City Councils Page 21