In Public Access Opinion 23-004, the Public Access Coordinator (“PAC”) found that a school board violated the Open Meeting Act (“OMA”) when its posted agenda language failed to set forth the general subject matter of a vote to approve a severance agreement with an assistant superintendent. The agenda for the September 15, 2022, meeting included a closed session for the purposes of “appointment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees.” Below the entry for closed session, the agenda stated: “immediately following closed session, action may take place as a result of closed session discussion.” Upon returning the open session, the board president moved “to approve Personnel Transaction Report II,” which consisted of a severance agreement with an assistant superintendent involving a payout of $183,274.
Section 2.02(c) of the OMA requires that agendas set forth the general subject matter of any final action to be taken at the meeting. With respect to personnel actions, the PAC emphasized that agendas must include sufficient information to notify the public of “the general category of employee” and “the general type of personnel transaction at issue.” With regard to the approval of the severance agreement, the PAC found that the agenda did not identify the type of employee at issue (i.e., assistant superintendent) or the action to be taken (i.e., approval of a severance agreement). Because a member of the public who read the agenda would have had no indication that the Board would vote on a severance agreement with a high-level administrator such as an assistant superintendent, the agenda was insufficient for the action taken by the Board.
This binding opinion serves as a reminder to carefully review agenda language for compliance under the OMA and to ensure that when discussing a matter in closed session, a public body’s open session discussions must include enough details to properly inform the public of the transactions being conducted.
Contact Kerry Pipal or any other attorney in our Board Governance/Corporate practice group to discuss the impact of this opinion.
Sources: Public Access Opinion 23-004
