I think we can all agree that 2020 was an unusual year for all of us. Since many of the normal activities have been canceled, we have noticed many of our citizens have taken an interest in our meetings. Some may have heard about the Open Meetings Act, and others may not have, so I thought I would give an overview of what is required of us in regards to the meetings we hold.
The Nebraska State Statutes §84-1407 through 84-1414 outline the requirements of open meetings. Every meeting of a public body shall be open to the public in order for citizens to exercise their right to attend and speak at these meetings. Below is some information that I hope you may find helpful. I know it is a lot of information, most of which was obtained from the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office website. The bullet points are what the City of Beatrice follows as our practice.
What is a public body? Public bodies covered by the public meetings statute include: (1) governing bodies of all political subdivisions of the State; (2) governing bodies of all agencies of the executive department of state government created by law; (3) all independent boards, commissions, bureaus, committees, councils, subunits, or any other bodies created pursuant to law, (4) all study or advisory committees of the executive department of the state whether of continuing or limited existence, (5) advisory committees of the governing bodies of political subdivisions, of the governing bodies of agencies of the executive branch of state government, or of independent boards, commissions, etc., and (6) "instrumentalities exercising essentially public functions.”
- For Beatrice, the most common public bodies include our City Council, Board of Public Works, and Planning and Zoning Commission. These three (3) bodies meet on a more regular basis than our other boards and commissions. The other public bodies the City of Beatrice has are: BASWA Board, Beatrice Plus Advisory Board, Board of Adjustments, Board of Appeals, Board of Examination of Plumbers, Board of Health, Citizens Advisory Review Committee (CARC), Civil Service Commission, Community Redevelopment Authority (CRA), Housing Authority Board, and Library Board. More information on what each of these bodies do can be found on our website here.
Meetings. For purposes of the open meetings statutes, are defined as "all regular, special, or called meetings, formal or informal, of any public body for the purposes of briefing, discussion of public business, formation of tentative policy, or the taking of any action of the public body."
- The City Council meetings are held on the first and third Mondays of each month, and the Board of Public Works meet the Wednesdays preceding these dates.
Notice of Meetings. For all public meetings, reasonable advanced publicized notice stating the time and location of each meeting must be given and recorded in its minutes.
- The City of Beatrice uses forty-eight (48) hours as reasonable notice. Due to publication deadlines, if for some reason it is not able to be published, notice is posted in three (3) places. Those three (3) places are: City Hall Bulletin Board, City Auditorium Bulletin Board near the south entry, and Beatrice Public Library. In 2020, when our offices have been closed to public, notice was posted on the front door of each of those buildings, so that public had access to our public notices.
- If a special meeting of a public body is to be held, the reason must be included in such notice. One (1) example would be when our City Council meets to approve final claims for the fiscal year.
Emergency Meetings. Section 84-1411(5) allows public bodies to hold emergency meetings without reasonable advance public notice. There are several statutory requirements with respect to such emergency meetings: (1) the nature of the emergency shall be stated in the minutes, and any formal action taken shall pertain only to the emergency, (2) the provisions of § 84-1411(4) dealing with notice to the media shall be complied with in connection with an emergency meeting, (3) complete minutes of the emergency meeting specifying the nature of the emergency and any formal action taken at the meeting shall be made available to the public no later than the end of the next regular business day.
Agendas. Under §84-1411(e), an agenda maintained at the office of a public body for public inspection must be kept continually current and may not be altered later than twenty-four (24) hours before the scheduled commencement of the public meeting.
- All agendas for public bodies of the City of Beatrice are posted on our website at least twenty-four (24) hours prior to the meeting.
Minutes. Every public body shall keep minutes of all meetings showing the time, place, members present and absent, and the substance of all matters discussed. The minutes of all meetings and evidence or documentation received or disclosed during open session shall be public records, open to public inspection during normal business hours. Minutes shall be written and available for inspection within ten (10) working days or prior to the next convened meeting, whichever occurs earlier.
- Minutes are posted on our website upon approval by such public body at their next regularly scheduled meeting. Minutes are always available for inspection within the ten (10) working days in the City Clerk’s Office.
- If you would like a copy of the minutes, we ask that you complete a Public Records Request, so that we have record of said request for our files. The form can be completed on our website or in the City Clerk’s Office.
2020 Corona Virus. Governor Ricketts issued two (2) executive orders (20-03 and 20-36) in 2020 that permitted public bodies in the State to meet by videoconferencing, telephone conference call, or other electronic means so long as members of the public and the media are provided access to the meetings. The Order required that any public body that elects to meet by electronic means (1) provide reasonable advance publicized notice of its meeting and (2) prepare an agenda of items to be discussed at the meeting.
- The City of Beatrice did take advantage of the executive orders for many of our meetings in efforts to help prevent the spread of the Corona Virus.
Hopefully this information was a bit helpful and gave an insight to what is all required to have an open meeting. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.
Erin Saathoff, CMC
City Clerk, City of Beatrice