Chapter 120: OPEN MEETINGS AND RECORDS POLICY

ARTICLE I: In General

Section 120.010.  Definitions.

As used in this Chapter, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms mean: 

CLOSED MEETING, CLOSED RECORD or CLOSED VOTE — Any meeting, record or vote closed to the public.  

COPYING — If requested by a member of the public, copies provided in accord with the cost schedule established by this Article, if duplication equipment is available.  

PUBLIC BUSINESS — All matters which relate in any way to performance of the City's functions or the conduct of its business.  

PUBLIC GOVERNMENTAL BODY — Any legislative, administrative or governmental entity created by the Constitution or Statutes of this State, orders or ordinances of the City, judicial entities when operating in an administrative capacity, or by executive order, including:  

1.       Any advisory committee or commission appointed by the Mayor or Board of Aldermen.  
2.       Any department or division of the City.  
3.       Any other legislative or administrative governmental deliberative body under the direction of three (3) or more elected or appointed members having rulemaking or quasi-judicial power.  
4.       Any committee appointed by or at the direction of any of the entities and which is authorized to report to any of the above-named entities, any advisory committee appointed by or at the direction of any of the named entities for the specific purpose of recommending, directly to the public governmental body's governing board or its Chief Administrative Officer, policy or policy revisions or expenditures of public funds.  
5.       Any quasi-public governmental body. The term "quasi-public governmental body" means any person, corporation or partnership organized or authorized to do business in this State pursuant to the provisions of Chapters 352, 353, or 355, RSMo., or unincorporated association which either:  
   1. Has as its primary purpose to enter into contracts with public governmental bodies, or to engage primarily in activities carried out pursuant to an agreement or agreements with public governmental bodies; or  
   2. Performs a public function, as evidenced by a statutorily or ordinance-based capacity to confer or otherwise advance through approval, recommendation or other means, the allocation or issuance of tax credits, tax abatement, public debt, tax exempt debt, rights of eminent domain, or the contracting of lease-back agreements on structures whose annualized payments commit public tax revenues; or any association that directly accepts the appropriation of money from the City, but only to the extent that a meeting, record, or vote relates to such appropriation.      

PUBLIC MEETING — Any meeting of a public governmental body subject to this Chapter at which any public business is discussed, decided, or public policy formulated, whether corporeal or by means of communication equipment. The term "public meeting" shall not include an informal gathering of members of a public governmental body for ministerial or social purposes when there is no intent to avoid the purposes of this Chapter, but the term shall include a vote of all or a majority of the members of a public governmental body, by electronic communication or any other means, conducted in lieu of holding a public meeting with the members of the public governmental body gathered at one (1) location in order to conduct public business.  

PUBLIC RECORD — Any record, whether written or electronically stored, retained by or of any public governmental body including any report, survey, memorandum, or other document or study prepared and presented to the public governmental body by a consultant or other professional service paid for in whole or in part by public funds. The term "public record" shall not include any internal memorandum or letter received or prepared by or on behalf of a member of a public governmental body consisting of advice, opinions and recommendations in connection with the deliberative decision-making process of said body, unless such records are retained by the public governmental body or presented at a public meeting.  

PUBLIC VOTE — Any vote cast at any public meeting of any public governmental body.  

Section 120.020.  Meetings, Records and Votes to Be Public — Exceptions. 

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 minutes, vote or settlement agreement relating to legal actions, causes of action or litigation involving a public governmental body or any agent or entity representing its interests or acting on its behalf or with its authority, including any insurance company acting on behalf of a public governmental body as its insured, shall be made public upon final disposition of the matter voted upon or upon the signing by the parties of the settlement agreement, unless, prior to final disposition, the settlement agreement is ordered closed by a court after a written finding that the adverse impact to a plaintiff or plaintiffs to the action clearly outweighs the public policy considerations of Section 610.011, however, the amount of any monies paid by, or on behalf of, the public governmental body shall be disclosed; 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.       Leasing, purchase or sale of real estate by a public governmental body where public knowledge of the transaction might adversely affect the legal consideration therefor. However, any minutes or vote or public record approving a contract relating to the leasing, 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 of particular employees by a public governmental body when personal information about the employee is discussed or recorded. 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 with a record of how each member voted to the public 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 of such decision during the seventy-two (72) hour period before such decision is made available to the public. As used in this subdivision, the term "personal information" means information relating to the performance or merit of individual employees. 
4.       Non-judicial mental or physical health proceedings involving an identifiable person, 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 bids are opened; and sealed proposals and related documents or any documents related to a negotiated contract until a contract is executed, or all proposals 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 which 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.     Records relating to municipal hotlines established for the reporting of abuse and wrongdoing. 
15.     Confidential or privileged communications between a public governmental body and its auditor, including all auditor work product. 
16.     In preparation for and implementation of electric restructuring, a municipal electric utility may close that portion of its financial records and business plans which contains information regarding the name of the suppliers of services to said utility and the cost of such services, and the records and business plans concerning the municipal electric utility's future marketing and service expansion areas. However, this exception shall not be construed to limit access to other records of a municipal electric utility, including but not limited to the names and addresses of its business and residential customers, its financial reports, including but not limited to, its budget, annual reports, and other financial statements prepared in the course of business, and other records maintained in the course of doing business as a municipal electric utility. This exception shall become null and void if the State of Missouri fails to implement by December 31, 2001, electric restructuring through the adoption of Statutes permitting the same in this State.     

Section 120.030.  Records Pertaining to Internal Investigations and Investigations of Allegedly Illegal Conduct.

In order 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, records and documents relating to investigations of allegations of misconduct by City employees will be considered to be personnel records and shall be closed records under the custody of the respective department head. 

Section 120.040.  Records Pertaining to Medical Condition or History. 

1.       Supervisors and managers may be informed regarding necessary restrictions on the work duties of employees and necessary accommodations; 
2.       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 
3.       Government officials investigating compliance with State or Federal law pertaining to treatment of persons with disabilities may be allowed access to such records.     

Section 120.050.  Records Containing Confidential, Proprietary or Private Information. 

1.       Whether or not the requesting party has informed persons to whom the requested information pertains of the request; and 
2.       All reasons why the requesting party believes disclosure by the City of the specified information is in the public interest.   

1.       The requirements and intent of State law, City ordinances and this policy; 
2.       The legitimate expectations of privacy on the part of interested parties; 
3.       The personal, confidential, private or proprietary nature of the information at issue; 
4.       Whether the information was obtained by the City under compulsion of law or was freely and voluntarily provided by the persons objecting to the disclosure; and 
5.       The public purposes to be served by disclosure of the requested information.

               If the City Clerk determines that disclosure is legally required or would otherwise serve the best interests of the public and that such requirements or purpose outweigh the legitimate concerns or interest of the persons to whom the information pertains, the Clerk shall provide the requested information to the requesting party.        

Section 120.060.  Notices of Meetings. 

Section 120.070.  Closed Meetings, How Held. 

Section 120.080.  Journals of Meetings and Records of Voting. 

Section 120.090.  Accessibility of Meetings. 

Section 120.100.  Segregation of Exempt Material.

If a public record contains material which is not exempt from disclosure, as well as material which is exempt from disclosure, the custodian shall separate the exempt and non-exempt material and make the non-exempt material available for examination and copying in accord with the policies provided herein. When designing a public record the custodian shall, to the extent practicable, facilitate a separation of exempt from non-exempt information. If the separation is readily apparent to a person requesting to inspect or receive copies of the form, the custodian shall generally describe the material exempted unless that description would reveal the contents of the exempt information and thus defeat the purpose of the exemption. 

Section 120.110.  Custodian Designated — Response to Request for Access to Records. 

Section 120.120.  Procedures for Resolving Questions of Public Accessibility.

A public governmental body or record custodian in doubt about the legality of closing a particular meeting, record or vote may, subject to approval by the Board of Aldermen, bring suit at the expense of the public governmental body, in the Circuit Court for the County of Macon to ascertain the propriety of such action. In addition, subject to approval by the Board of Aldermen, the public governmental body or custodian may seek a formal opinion of the Attorney General or an attorney for the City regarding the propriety of such action. In such events, the proposed closed meeting or public access to the record or vote shall be deferred for a reasonable time pending the outcome of the actions so taken. 

Section 120.130.  Fees.

The custodian shall charge twenty-five cents ($.25) per page for duplication costs and ten dollars ($10.00) per hour for document search; provided however, that the fee for copies of bond receipts and other bond documents of the La Plata Municipal Court and/or La Plata Police Department shall be two dollars ($2.00) for the first (1st) page and one dollar ($1.00) for each additional page per request and no hourly charge for document search shall be levied for such documents. The fee for copying accident reports shall be five dollars ($5.00). Said fees for copying pubic records shall not exceed the actual cost of document search and duplication. Upon request, the public governmental body shall certify in writing that the actual cost of document search and duplication is fair, reasonable and does not exceed the actual cost incurred by the public governmental body. The custodian may require payment prior to duplicating any documents.  

ARTICLE II

Law Enforcement Arrest Reports and Records, Incident Reports, Etc.

Section 120.140.  Definitions.

As used in this Article, the following terms shall have the following definitions: 

ARREST — An actual restraint of the person of the defendant, or by his/her submission to the custody of the officer, under authority of a warrant or otherwise for a criminal violation which results in the issuance of a summons or the person being booked.  

ARREST REPORT — A record of a law enforcement agency of an arrest and of any detention or confinement incident thereto together with the charge therefor.  

INACTIVE — An investigation in which no further action will be taken by a law enforcement agency or officer for any of the following reasons:  

1.       A decision by the law enforcement agency not to pursue the case.  
2.       Expiration of the time to file criminal charges pursuant to the applicable statute of limitations, or ten (10) years after the commission of the offense, whichever date earliest occurs.  
3.       Finality of the convictions of all persons convicted on the basis of the information contained in the investigative report, by exhaustion of or expiration of all rights of appeal of such persons.    

INCIDENT REPORT — A record of a law enforcement agency consisting of the date, time, specific location, name of the victim and immediate facts and circumstances surrounding the initial report of a crime or incident, including any logs of reported crimes, accidents and complaints maintained by that agency.  

INVESTIGATIVE REPORT — A record, other than an arrest or incident report, prepared by personnel of a law enforcement agency, inquiring into a crime or suspected crime, either in response to an incident report or in response to evidence developed by law enforcement officers in the course of their duties.  

Section 120.150.  Police Department Records.