Members of the Cook County– Grand Marais Economic Development Authority (EDA) may have inadvertently violated Minnesota’s Open Meeting law when four of the seven EDA board members attended the Cook County commissioners’ meeting on Tuesday, June 22, 2010 to discuss the future of Superior National at Lutsen golf course. The EDA, like other governmental bodies, is required to post any meeting at which there is a quorum of its members. There was no posting.
Three of five Grand Marais city council members were also present— Mayor Sue Hakes, Bill Lenz, and Jan Sivertson. That also constitutes a quorum of that board, however, City Administrator Mike Roth said a notice was posted in the city hall lobby that a quorum would possibly be in attendance at the June 22 meeting. Roth said the matter was discussed at the last city council meeting after an EDA and Friends of Superior National golf course presentation to the city. “We specifically talked about the need to post the meeting,” said Roth.
Roth added that posting at city hall was sufficient since it was not a special meeting of the council or a public hearing. “When it’s something where they are conducting business or making decisions, we make more effort to get the word out,” he said.
The appearance of the four EDA board members was due in part because of an overlap of the various boards on which the members serve. EDA members at the meeting were Mark Sandbo, Hal Greenwood, Jan Sivertson and Bruce Martinson. EDA Board Member Jim Hall was at the county board meeting earlier in his role as a Cook County Soil & Water Conservation District director, but he left when the golf course discussion began.
The EDA members in attendance did constitute a quorum, but they did not sit together in the audience. Sivertson, the Grand Marais City Council’s EDA representative, is a member of the EDA golf course committee and she took part in the presentation about Superior National at Lutsen. Martinson is Cook County District 5 Commissioner and the county’s EDA representative. He sat in his usual seat at the commissioner’s table.
Sandbo, another EDA golf course committee representative, also took part in the presentation about Superior National at Lutsen. Greenwood also sat in on the discussion.
Although no decisions were made and there was little interaction between EDA board members, the meeting should have been posted at the EDA’s posting place—the front door of the EDA office. EDA Director Matt Geretschlaeger said there was no such posting. He stressed that there was not a quorum of EDA board members in the
audience
at the meeting. Geretschlaeger also agreed that the EDA must be more careful about posting in the future.
In addition to Mayor Sue Hakes, who is running for the county commissioner District 3 seat currently held by Bob Fenwick, candidates Bill Hennessy and Diane Parker were also in attendance at the meeting. Hennessy is running for the District 1 seat currently held by Jan Hall and Parker is running for the District 5 seat currently held by Bruce Martinson.
According to Minnesota State Statute 13D.04 Notice of Meetings, subdivision 2:
Special meetings.
For a special meeting, except an emergency meeting or a special meeting for which a notice requirement is otherwise expressly established by statute, the public body shall post written notice of the date, time, place, and purpose of the meeting on the principal bulletin board of the public body, or if the public body has no principal bulletin board, on the door of its usual meeting room.
The notice shall also be mailed or otherwise delivered to each person who has filed a written request for notice of special meetings with the public body. This notice shall be posted and mailed or delivered at least three days before the date of the meeting.
As an alternative to mailing or otherwise delivering notice to persons who have filed a written request for notice of special meetings, the public body may publish the notice once, at least three days before the meeting, in the official newspaper of the public body or, if there is none, in a qualified newspaper of general circulation within the area of the public body’s authority.
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