The State of Missouri has legislation addressing government meetings and meetings of political subdivisions. Information about this legislation can be found at mo.gov.auditor. The information is well prepared and it makes for some interesting reading. What I learned after reviewing this site is that proper meeting procedures and documentation of the procedures is very important. The Missouri State Auditor looks for violation of the Sunshine Law. The most frequent violations of the sunshine law are not preparing meeting minutes, a lack of documentation of the reason for closing a meeting to the public, and closing a meeting for reasons not allowed under the law.
Governmental bodies must give notice of the time, date, and place of each open or closed meeting and a tentative agenda at least 24 hours in advance. These notices must be prominently posted at a place easily accessible to the public.
The Sunshine Law requires that when a public governmental body holds an open meeting, that entity must take and retain meeting minutes. The Sunshine Law permits Closed Meetings for topics such as litigation, purchase of real estate, employment discussion and sealed bids. Before the meeting may be closed, both the question of holding the closed meeting and the reason for the closed meeting must be voted on, by roll call. Topics for discussion in closed meetings must be limited to those where closure is authorized. The State Auditor will audit public entities and look for violations of the Sunshine Law.
On February 7, 2022 the Perry County Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees held a Special Session Meeting at noon at the hospital. Members of the two hospital boards plus other people were there representing Perry County Memorial Hospital. Members of the public were available and gave their opinions to the Board. Most importantly, at end of the Open Meeting, someone asked, “Why are we were not following the agenda?” The board’s answer was “What agenda?” Another member said “We do not have an agenda?” Then a notion was made to go into Closed Session. Patrick Naeger asked why we should go into Closed Session. The answer was, “Discussion.” To me, this was a clear violation of what I have described in this article.
