Following the announcement by the Calhoun County Commission of the Emergency Services Levy meeting at 3:30 p.m., several people were asking about the legality of the meeting with such short community notice. A review of West Virginia Ethics Commission sight, still left the meeting in question as to the ”ethics” of it, but as far as the legality of it, they appear to be covered. The end of this article may leave you of the opinion (and it is opinion) as to why happened as it did.
Calculating days for purposes of the Open Meetings Act
In calculating days, do not count the day of the meeting, weekend days or legal holidays. Half-day holidays are not legal holidays for the purpose of calculating days. State agencies, however, have additional obligations for posting a meeting notice with the Secretary of State’s office.
There was not two days notice with regard to today’s meeting. It was in the Chronicle with a publication date of Thursday, and the Ridgeview News received the notice on Thursday morning at 7:32 a.m.
Time requirements for posting a meeting notice
· State agencies – State agencies must file a notice of any meeting with the Secretary of State at least five business days prior to the date of the meeting.
· Other governing bodies – Notice must be given in a reasonable manner. When a governing body meets in accordance with a fixed schedule, such as the second and fourth Monday of each month, it may comply with the meeting notice requirement in the Act by annually posting notice of the date, time and place of these regular meetings or regular committee meetings for the coming year, and keeping this notice posted throughout the year.
· Regular meetings – For governing bodies which do not have a fixed schedule for meetings, these bodies may comply with the Open Meetings Act by posting a notice three business days in advance of the meeting.
· Special meetings – When a governing body meets on an irregular schedule, or needs to meet before the next regularly scheduled meeting to address matters that do not involve an emergency, these are considered special meetings. Notice must be posted two business days in advance of the meeting.
Although state agencies may conduct a special meeting, i.e., a meeting held between regularly scheduled meetings, due to the more restrictive language in the Open Meetings Act the agency must provide the meeting notice to the Secretary of State at least five business days prior to the date of the special meeting. State agencies may not call an emergency meeting for a subject that is not a true emergency. Failure to file a timely notice of meeting with the Secretary of State’s Office does not constitute an emergency.
What must a notice include?
Notice must include the date, time and place of the meeting. For special meetings or emergency meetings, the notice must state the purpose of the meeting.
Time requirements for posting an agenda
· Regular meeting – three business days before the meeting.
· Special meeting – two business days before the meeting.
· Emergency meeting – as soon as practicable prior to the meeting.
Where/how to post an agenda?
A governing body complies with the Act by posting its meeting agenda for each regularly scheduled meeting in a public place at its central office and by having copies of the agenda available there during regular business hours.
In addition, it may distribute agendas to the news media by mail, facsimile or e-mail. The agenda also may be posted on the governing body’s website if it has one. While additional dissemination to the public and the media is encouraged, failure to provide an agenda by such additional means will not invalidate an otherwise proper public meeting.
As I understand it (Ridgeview News), the notice of a meeting can be published by notice at the central office (courthouse) and by having copies of the agenda available during regular business hours (in the office of the Calhoun County Clerk).
While it may be legal, I (Ridgeview News), don’t believe it is ethical for a few reasons. The odds of county citizens seeing it at the courthouse bulletin board are slim unless you’re doing business there and then you’d have to locate the bulletin board and take the time to stop and read it. The fact that the only Fire Department that had advanced notice of this meeting, or had the information from the request of Chief Joe Tanner to change the Levy, was Arnoldsburg Volunteer Fire Department. This is definitely a question of business ethics and looks very poorly on the Calhoun County Commission.
With a levy already in question as to whether or not the community wants it because they feel their trust has been violated, now was probably not the time to play politics with such an important community decision. – Publisher Shari Johnson
