WILLMAR -- Four members of the Kandiyohi County Board of Commissioners may have participated in an illegal meeting Nov. 22 when they met with one Meeker County Commissioner as a joint ditch authority.
There does not appear to have been any sort of public notice as required under the state's Open Meeting Law.
Kandiyohi County Administrator Wayne Thompson said in an interview last week that a public notice of the meeting was not required because the commissioners met as the ditch authority for Judicial Ditch 11, and not as the County Board.
Mark Anfinson, the Tribune's attorney, said that even though statutes for a particular governing body, such as a ditch authority, may not specifically state that a public notice of meetings is required, the Open Meeting Law supersedes other statutes.
Anfinson said the Open Meeting Law applies to all public bodies, including ditch authorities, and therefore the public should have been officially notified of the ditch authority meeting. In simple terms, the Open Meeting Law requires that the public's business be conducted in view of the public. While there are limited exceptions for certain discussions, no public body is allowed to make decisions outside a public meeting.
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At the Nov. 22 joint ditch authority meeting, the authority members approved a project to repair Ditch 11 that extends through Kandiyohi and Meeker counties, according to County Ditch Inspector Loren Engelby.
The estimated cost of the project ranges from $77,375 to $121,000, with Kandiyohi County responsible for 80 percent of the cost.
Engelby said there will be a public hearing on the joint project in the future.
Thompson said it is only those "hearings" on ditch issues that require public notification; he said meetings of a ditch authority do not require public notice.
Thompson also said that the date for the ditch meeting was discussed and established during the regular Nov. 7 County Board meeting. Minutes from that meeting, however, state that the meeting would be held on either Nov. 22 or Nov. 27.
In any case, Anfinson said scheduling a future meeting date during a regular meeting does not satisfy the Open Meeting Law standards for notification.
Under Minnesota's Open Meeting Law, a public body conducting a special meeting must post the notice on its public bulletin board or meeting room door and must deliver a notice to anyone who has requested being notified of special meetings.
Any member of the public may make a request for notice for special meetings -- there is no special provision for the media.
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An alternative to making individual notifications is the publication of a notice in the official newspaper, the West Central Tribune. In the case of the Nov. 22 meeting, no public notice was published.
Four of the five Kandiyohi County Commissioners -- Dean Shuck, Dennis Peterson, Harlan Madsen and Richard Larson -- attended the ditch authority meeting, as did County Attorney Boyd Beccue, Auditor Sam Modderman, Engelby and one member of the Meeker County Board.
