Closed Sessions
Procedures
Statutes specify procedures that must be followed when convening and participating in a closed session:
To enter closed session
The body must initially convene in open session. To move into a closed session, the presiding officer must announce the specific subject matter and statutory authority for closure. A motion and recorded individual vote by a majority of the body are required to convene in closed session.
Attendance at closed sessions
Only members of the plan commission, the governing body, and those essential to the business for which the session was closed may attend a closed session. The planning or zoning staff person who presented testimony at the hearing and the municipal attorney (if he or she represented the plan commission at the hearing) should not attend closed sessions.
Discussions, motions and decisions
The body may consider only the matter for which the session was closed. Motions and decisions must be recorded. If a decision made in closed session is appealed, the record must contain sufficient detail to show that the plan commission considered the proper legal standards and evidence presented. Where feasible, the plan commission should vote in open session.
To reconvene in open session
Once a body convenes in closed session, it may not reconvene in open session for at least 12 hours, unless public notice of its intent to return to open session was given in the original notice of the meeting. Absent such notice, the body should amend its agenda to place any closed session at the end of the agenda. When there is good cause, two-hour prior notice of a planned closed session and reopening can be provided to allow reopening a meeting, but this approach is rarely necessary.
Exemption to Closed Sessions
Unless specifically exempted by state statute, all meetings of governmental bodies must be open and reasonably accessible to the public. Statutory exemptions most likely to apply to the plan commission include:
Deliberation concerning a case
Deliberation concerning a case that was the subject of a quasi-judicial hearing. The courts have determined a case to be an adversarial proceeding with opposing parties, not merely an application for a conditional use permit, variance or administrative appeal. Neighbors or others testifying for or against a matter are not considered parties.
Conferring with legal counsel
Conferring with legal counsel about strategy regarding current or likely litigation.
Actions concerning public employees
Consideration of dismissal, demotion, licensing, or discipline of a public employee or licensee unless the employee or licensee requests that the meeting be held in open session. Consideration of employment, promotion, compensation, or performance evaluation data of a public employee.
Potentially damaging personal information
Consideration of financial, medical, social, or personal histories or disciplinary data about specific persons that would likely have a substantial adverse effect on the reputation of a person.
Request to an ethics board
Consideration of a request for confidential written advice from a local ethics board.
Purchasing and bargaining
Matters which include business competition or bargaining issues such as public land acquisition or retaining a consultant. The competitive or bargaining issue must relate to reasons benefitting the governmental body, not a private party’s desire for confidentiality.
Other narrow exemptions
Specified deliberation regarding unemployment and workers compensation, burial sites and other narrow exemptions provided by statute.[/cets_callout_box]
