Auditor wants to be present via zoom
The rep for the company that performed the audit for one of my
municipalities is wanting to attend the council meeting and report the
findings via zoom. Is there any problem with this?
Depends. I reviewed this issue some years back, and determined that:
- Under the Open Meeting Act, to have someone participate via Zoom or other video process, the location from which the person would participate had to be open to the public and included as a meeting location in the public notice for the meeting. Thus, the location had to be somewhere that the public could actually have access to the location. If the auditor participates from an office location and has a conference room, that should suffice.
- Under our city ordinances, the location for council meetings had to be within the city limits. Therefore, the remote location also had to be within the city limits. That was not a problem for us, but it could be if your city has a similar provision and the auditor is out of town. Any ordinance requirements could be adjusted, if you have the time.
Jonathan E. Miller
City Attorney
City of Mustang
1501 N. Mustang Road
Mustang, Oklahoma 73064
Telephone: (405) 376-7746
Facsimile: (405) 376-7721
This email is sent by the City Attorney and may contain information that is privileged or confidential. If you received this email in error, please notify the sender by reply email and delete the email and any attachments. If you are a and officer, employee or agent of the City of Mustang, you should not share this email with others. Sharing this email may result in a loss of the attorney-client privilege.
From: Phillip Morton mortonlawoffice@gmail.com
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2023 11:59 AM
To: OAMA luistserv oama@lists.imla.org
Subject: [Oama] Auditor wants to be present via zoom
The rep for the company that performed the audit for one of my municipalities is wanting to attend the council meeting and report the findings via zoom. Is there any problem with this?
I'm not aware of any Court cases or AG opinions on point. But it would seem
to me that this would be allowable under the OMA.
The term meeting and videoconference are both defined terms in Section 304.
The definition of a teleconference is linked to the way the public body
members attend and interaction, and not the public. Yes, the definition
includes a reference to interactions between the members of the body and
with the public, but that's in terms of the technological requirement (i.e.
a VC is a conference among members of the public body remote from one
another, and then it says the way you do that is with tech that permits
both visual and auditory communication between and among the members of the
body and between those members and the public. By definition, if all the
members of the body are physically present together, then it's not a
videoconference - it's a "meeting" as that term is defined in 304. I'd also
point to 306, which prohibits electronic or telephonic communications
"among a majority of the members of a public body" (with an exception for
307.1 videoconferences). Again, it speaks in terms of interaction between
the members of the body, not third parties.
If you look at 307.1, it does speak in terms of giving notice of each
videoconferencing location and that each of those locations has to be open
to the public to attend at the videoconference location(s). But, again, by
definition, it's not a videoconference if the public body members are all
physically together in person. Moreover, even when a videoconference is
going to be held per 307.1, the statute (307.1(A)(5)) only requires that
the videoconference location(s) be open to the public if a member of the
public body (whose attending remote) is at that location.
Now, I will say - if the auditor is going to be displaying things on the
screen for the public body to see (e.g. a powerpoint, pulling up a portion
of the audit report, etc.), then I'd make sure that the public can see it
as well (i.e. not just have them on a screen that only the Council can
see). Is it required? I could argue the point. After all, the conduct of
business is the entire decision making process and not just the votes, and
is supposed to be done in view of the public. We all have attended meetings
where someone is speaking and hands out something that the Councilmembers
review (which obviously the public isn't able to see since it's not a blown
up version). And most of the time, that occurs when no one is there or
anyone that is there isn't really there for that particular item. But I
know, at least where I'm City Attorney, if we do have people present, we
will usually offer to go run copies of whatever they gave us (and a few
times we've had people take us up on that). But there's a decent argument
to make that if the Council is reviewing something presented to them at the
meeting by a third party speaker, then that's part of the decision making
process and that we aren't allowing the public to see what we are seeing.
Those are my thoughts.
Matt
On Wed, Feb 15, 2023 at 12:00 PM Phillip Morton mortonlawoffice@gmail.com
wrote:
The rep for the company that performed the audit for one of my
municipalities is wanting to attend the council meeting and report the
findings via zoom. Is there any problem with this?
Oama mailing list -- oama@lists.imla.org
To unsubscribe send an email to oama-leave@lists.imla.org
I don’t read Section 307.1 as applying when all of the members of the public body are present at the meeting location and it is a third-party who is participating by teleconference. I’ve interpreted the OMA to allow third parties to participate via video or teleconference.
Kim Spady
From: Jon Miller JMiller@cityofmustang.org
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2023 12:20 PM
To: Phillip Morton mortonlawoffice@gmail.com; OAMA luistserv oama@lists.imla.org
Subject: [Oama] Re: Auditor wants to be present via zoom
Depends. I reviewed this issue some years back, and determined that:
- Under the Open Meeting Act, to have someone participate via Zoom or other video process, the location from which the person would participate had to be open to the public and included as a meeting location in the public notice for the meeting. Thus, the location had to be somewhere that the public could actually have access to the location. If the auditor participates from an office location and has a conference room, that should suffice.
- Under our city ordinances, the location for council meetings had to be within the city limits. Therefore, the remote location also had to be within the city limits. That was not a problem for us, but it could be if your city has a similar provision and the auditor is out of town. Any ordinance requirements could be adjusted, if you have the time.
Jonathan E. Miller
City Attorney
City of Mustang
1501 N. Mustang Road
Mustang, Oklahoma 73064
Telephone: (405) 376-7746
Facsimile: (405) 376-7721
This email is sent by the City Attorney and may contain information that is privileged or confidential. If you received this email in error, please notify the sender by reply email and delete the email and any attachments. If you are a and officer, employee or agent of the City of Mustang, you should not share this email with others. Sharing this email may result in a loss of the attorney-client privilege.
From: Phillip Morton <mortonlawoffice@gmail.com mailto:mortonlawoffice@gmail.com >
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2023 11:59 AM
To: OAMA luistserv <oama@lists.imla.org mailto:oama@lists.imla.org >
Subject: [Oama] Auditor wants to be present via zoom
The rep for the company that performed the audit for one of my municipalities is wanting to attend the council meeting and report the findings via zoom. Is there any problem with this?
sophospsmartbannerend
The rep for the company that performed the audit for one of my municipalities is wanting to attend the council meeting and report the findings via zoom. Is there any problem with this?
I should have clarified in my situation it was a member wanting to participate remotely. I have not looked at whether a third party could do so.
Jon Miller
Get Outlook for iOShttps://aka.ms/o0ukef
From: Kim@spadylaw.com Kim@spadylaw.com
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2023 12:58:05 PM
To: 'OAMA luistserv' oama@lists.imla.org
Subject: [Oama] Re: Auditor wants to be present via zoom
I don’t read Section 307.1 as applying when all of the members of the public body are present at the meeting location and it is a third-party who is participating by teleconference. I’ve interpr
Caution! This message was sent from outside your organization.
sophospsmartbannerend
I don’t read Section 307.1 as applying when all of the members of the public body are present at the meeting location and it is a third-party who is participating by teleconference. I’ve interpreted the OMA to allow third parties to participate via video or teleconference.
Kim Spady
From: Jon Miller JMiller@cityofmustang.org
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2023 12:20 PM
To: Phillip Morton mortonlawoffice@gmail.com; OAMA luistserv oama@lists.imla.org
Subject: [Oama] Re: Auditor wants to be present via zoom
Depends. I reviewed this issue some years back, and determined that:
- Under the Open Meeting Act, to have someone participate via Zoom or other video process, the location from which the person would participate had to be open to the public and included as a meeting location in the public notice for the meeting. Thus, the location had to be somewhere that the public could actually have access to the location. If the auditor participates from an office location and has a conference room, that should suffice.
- Under our city ordinances, the location for council meetings had to be within the city limits. Therefore, the remote location also had to be within the city limits. That was not a problem for us, but it could be if your city has a similar provision and the auditor is out of town. Any ordinance requirements could be adjusted, if you have the time.
Jonathan E. Miller
City Attorney
City of Mustang
1501 N. Mustang Road
Mustang, Oklahoma 73064
Telephone: (405) 376-7746
Facsimile: (405) 376-7721
This email is sent by the City Attorney and may contain information that is privileged or confidential. If you received this email in error, please notify the sender by reply email and delete the email and any attachments. If you are a and officer, employee or agent of the City of Mustang, you should not share this email with others. Sharing this email may result in a loss of the attorney-client privilege.
From: Phillip Morton <mortonlawoffice@gmail.commailto:mortonlawoffice@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2023 11:59 AM
To: OAMA luistserv <oama@lists.imla.orgmailto:oama@lists.imla.org>
Subject: [Oama] Auditor wants to be present via zoom
The rep for the company that performed the audit for one of my municipalities is wanting to attend the council meeting and report the findings via zoom. Is there any problem with this?
sophospsmartbannerend
The rep for the company that performed the audit for one of my municipalities is wanting to attend the council meeting and report the findings via zoom. Is there any problem with this?