02-25-2015 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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RELEVANT LINKS: Moberg v. Indep. Sch. Disr. No. 281, 336 N.W.2d 510 (Minn. 1983). See Section 11.- G.-6. Serial meetings. Minn. Stat, § 13.02, subd. 7. See Handbook for Minnesota Cities, Chapter 27 for more information about records management. As a result, councilmembers should make sure that any comments they make on social media are factually correct, and they should not comment on issues that will come before the council in the future for a quasi-judicial decision, such as the consideration of whether to grant an application for a conditional use permit. It is also important to remember that serial discussions between less than a quorum of a public body that is subject to the open meeting law could violate the open meeting law under certain circumstances. Therefore, city councils and other groups to which the open meeting law applies should take a conservative approach and avoid using letters, telephone conversations, email, and other such technology if the following circumstances exist: • A quorum of the council will be contacted regarding the same matter. • City business is being discussed. Another thing councilmembers should be careful about is which email account they use to receive emails relating to city business because such emails would likely be considered government data that is subject to a public -records request under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (MGDPA). The best option would be for each councilmember to have an individual email account that the city provides and city staff manage. However, this is not always possible for cities due to budget, size, or logistics. If councilmembers don't have a city email account, there are some things to think about before using a personal email account for city business. First, preferably only the councilmember should have access to the personal email account. Using a shared account with other family members could lead to information being inadvertently deleted. Also, since city emails are government data, city officials may have to separate personal emails from city emails when responding to a public -records request. Second, if the account a city councilmember wants to use for city business is tied to a private employer, that private employer may have a policy that restricts this kind of use. Even if a private employer allows this type of use, it is important to be aware that in the event of a public -records request under the MGDPA, or a discovery request in litigation, the private employer may be compelled to have a search done of a councilmembers' email communication on the private employer's equipment or to restore files from a backup or archive. What may work best is to use a free, third -party email service, such as gmail or Hotmail, for your city account and to avoid using that email account for any personal email or for anything that may constitute an official record of city business since such records must be retained in accordance with the state records retention requirements. League of Minnesota Cities Information Memo: 11/14/2014 Meetings of City Councils Page 21