One of my cities has a council member that likes to attend staff and employee meetings. As long as the member only observes the meetings and does not give directions, instructions or otherwise interject himself is this prohibited. I don't believe it is a wise policy, but is it illegal or improper? MIKE WARWICK OBA #9377MICHAEL P WARWICK INC.400 N. BROADWAY, P.O. BOX 1211SHAWNEE, OK 74801-1211405-273-1554  This communication, and any documents attached thereto, are covered by the Electronics Communications Privacy Act, and are protected by the Attorney/Client and/or Attorney Work Product Privilege. This communication is intended only for the use of the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any reading, disclosure, copying, distribution, or action regarding the communication is prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender and delete the communication and attached documents, if any. 

You're probably right - not illegal, but a really, really bad idea. As long as there is not a quorum of the Council present, then you don't have an OMA issue (i.e. that (s)he's getting info about something that might come before the Council, so part of the decision making process). See 2020 OK AG 4, P3-5. But if you allow 1 Councilmember to attend something *as a Councilmember*, then there's an argument that you would have to allow all other Councilmembers. Take a look at 2012 OK AG 20. While it dealt with the Town Board of Trustees form of government, the logic applies to other forms of government - i.e. that the power of the governing body is vested *with the body* and not individual members, and that any authority that an individual member would have outside of meetings must be equally provided to all members (save the Mayor in the Town form of government, who can be given additional powers and duties by ordinance). I don't think there'd be any question that the Councilmember is attending *as a Councilmember *(i.e. I doubt that they let citizens just attend those meetings). As such, good as to one, good as to all. The appearance of impropriety here should be enough for the Council to say this would not be permitted (which is basically what the AG said in the 2012 opinion - that the governing body can dictate level of access as a policy matter). If the member is attending those meetings, it would give the appearance that it was for a reason, and given that the topics are largely if not entirely related to matters outside the purview of the Council, that reason would be an impermissible one. Councilmember attends and then the Manager/Administrator/Department Head makes an internal change, might one think that the Councilmember was involved? And that's before you get to the question of *what happens when other Councilmembers want to attend*. The answer to that question is *the problem compounds on itself*. Those are my 2 cents. Matt On Tue, Aug 30, 2022 at 1:57 PM Michael Warwick via Oama < oama@lists.imla.org> wrote: > One of my cities has a council member that likes to attend staff and > employee meetings. As long as the member only observes the meetings and > does not give directions, instructions or otherwise interject himself is > this prohibited. I don't believe it is a wise policy, but is it illegal or > improper? > > MIKE WARWICK OBA #9377 > MICHAEL P WARWICK INC. > 400 N. BROADWAY, P.O. BOX 1211 > SHAWNEE, OK 74801-1211 > 405-273-1554 > > This communication, and any documents attached thereto, are covered by the > Electronics Communications Privacy Act, and are protected by the > Attorney/Client and/or Attorney Work Product Privilege. This communication > is intended only for the use of the intended recipient. If you are not the > intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any reading, disclosure, > copying, distribution, or action regarding the communication is prohibited. > If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender > and delete the communication and attached documents, if any. > > -- > Oama mailing list -- oama@lists.imla.org > To unsubscribe send an email to oama-leave@lists.imla.org >

One of the standard “council handbook” provisions we use provides: COUNCIL ACCESS AND USE OF PUBLIC FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT The board acknowledges that the powers bestowed on council by state law are granted to the board as a whole, and not to individual board members. As such, the powers granted to council are only exercised in public meetings in compliance with the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act. Individual board members, (including the mayor in some forms of government), do not have any greater access to public facilities, work sites, or city owned property and equipment than the public at large. Neither the board nor mayor (depending on form of government) are provided offices at city hall or any other city facility, and should direct any request for assistance with official duties (clerical, mailing, travel arrangements, etc.) through management. As Matt Love stated, there are limited individual powers and only for the group as a whole – having them acknowledge that they do not have that power, by handbook, helps avoid these problems. David L. Weatherford Attorney At Law 1141 East 37th Street Tulsa, OK 74105 (918) 743-8355 (918) 743-7478 (fax) From: Michael Warwick via Oama <oama@lists.imla.org> Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2022 1:57 PM To: oama@lists.imla.org Subject: [Oama] council member-staff meetings One of my cities has a council member that likes to attend staff and employee meetings. As long as the member only observes the meetings and does not give directions, instructions or otherwise interject himself is this prohibited. I don't believe it is a wise policy, but is it illegal or improper? MIKE WARWICK OBA #9377 MICHAEL P WARWICK INC. 400 N. BROADWAY, P.O. BOX 1211 SHAWNEE, OK 74801-1211 405-273-1554 This communication, and any documents attached thereto, are covered by the Electronics Communications Privacy Act, and are protected by the Attorney/Client and/or Attorney Work Product Privilege. This communication is intended only for the use of the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any reading, disclosure, copying, distribution, or action regarding the communication is prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender and delete the communication and attached documents, if any.

David has had a lot of success using governing body handbooks - to the point that OMAG has made adoption of a governing body handbook a requirement as part of our Recognition program for our Members. We've got samples of governing body handbooks for the statutory forms of government available on our website (i.e. even for cities and towns that are not OMAG members) at https://www.omag.org/recognition You'll all be shocked to find out that David might have had a hand in developing those sample governing body handbooks! Many, many, many thanks to David for doing that and for the recognition training he has provided to so many of our cities and towns. Matt On Tue, Aug 30, 2022 at 3:28 PM David Weatherford < davidweatherford@sbcglobal.net> wrote: > One of the standard “council handbook” provisions we use provides: > > *COUNCIL ACCESS AND USE OF PUBLIC FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT* > > The board acknowledges that the powers bestowed on council by state law > are granted to the board as a whole, and not to individual board members. > As such, the powers granted to council are only exercised in public > meetings in compliance with the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act. > > > > Individual board members, (including the mayor in some forms of > government), do not have any greater access to public facilities, work > sites, or city owned property and equipment than the public at large. > Neither the board nor mayor (depending on form of government) are provided > offices at city hall or any other city facility, and should direct any > request for assistance with official duties (clerical, mailing, travel > arrangements, etc.) through management. > > > > As Matt Love stated, there are limited individual powers and only for the > group as a whole – having them acknowledge that they do not have that > power, by handbook, helps avoid these problems. > > > > *David L. Weatherford* > > *Attorney At Law* > > *1141 East 37th Street* > > *Tulsa, OK 74105* > > *(918) 743-8355* > > *(918) 743-7478 (fax)* > > > > *From:* Michael Warwick via Oama <oama@lists.imla.org> > *Sent:* Tuesday, August 30, 2022 1:57 PM > *To:* oama@lists.imla.org > *Subject:* [Oama] council member-staff meetings > > > > One of my cities has a council member that likes to attend staff and > employee meetings. As long as the member only observes the meetings and > does not give directions, instructions or otherwise interject himself is > this prohibited. I don't believe it is a wise policy, but is it illegal or > improper? > > MIKE WARWICK OBA #9377 > > MICHAEL P WARWICK INC. > > 400 N. BROADWAY, P.O. BOX 1211 > > SHAWNEE, OK 74801-1211 > > 405-273-1554 > > > > This communication, and any documents attached thereto, are covered by the > Electronics Communications Privacy Act, and are protected by the > Attorney/Client and/or Attorney Work Product Privilege. This communication > is intended only for the use of the intended recipient. If you are not the > intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any reading, disclosure, > copying, distribution, or action regarding the communication is prohibited. > If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender > and delete the communication and attached documents, if any. > > > -- > Oama mailing list -- oama@lists.imla.org > To unsubscribe send an email to oama-leave@lists.imla.org >