By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette

Attorney General letter dated April 13, 2010
(Click to enlarge)

Thursday, April 15, 2010, 12:55 p.m. -- The Kentucky Attorney General's Office has ruled that Nelson Fiscal Court violated several portions of the Kentucky Open Meetings law when it went into executive session on March 2, 2010.

In a complaint filed March 19, Kevin Brumley states that on March 2, the court violated the Open Meetings law when it improperly moved to go into closed session without specifying the exception in the law under which the closed meeting fell.

State law requires public agencies to cite the applicable exception to the open meetings law when they convene in a session closed to the public and media.

County Attorney John Kelley's response to Brumley was that the closed meeting announcement stated it was for the purpose of buying or selling real property, and it was "obvious that ... the closed session falls under the exceptions in KRS 61.810(1)(b)."

The AG's office disagreed with Kelley's defense and found the court in violation of the law. In their decision, the AG's office wrote that even with the mention of "real property," the public announcement did not cite the exception and therefore failed to meet the criteria specified in the Open Meetings law.

Brumley also complained of the timing of the announcement of the closed meeting. The closed meeting was announced at the start of the regular 9 a.m. Fiscal Court meeting. The court did not go into its closed meeting until the end of its regular meeting, which was more than 30 minutes later. Brumley's complaint states that if a visitor had come late to the meeting, he or she would have missed the announcement of the closed meeting.

The AG's office agreed that the delay was unreasonable.

While agreeing with the County Attorney's defense that there is no statute addressing timeliness of a closed meeting announcement, the AG's office decision states that a "standard of reasonableness must govern the proximity in time" between the notice of the closed meeting and the motion to begin the meeting. "Ordinarily, reasonableness dictates that no significant amount of time should elapse between the two events, for the simple reason that the public should not be expected to keep in mind the details of the notice while all manner of unrelated business is being discussed."

Brumley also complained that the court's 9 a.m. announcement failed failed to state if the purpose was to buy or sell property. While the AG's office said there is no statute for a public agency to disclose that information, it found that Nelson Fiscal Court violated the Open Meetings law by failing to elaborate on the reason for the closed meeting.

Additionally, the AG's office noted that the county committed a procedural violation of the Open Meetings Act by failing to respond to Brumley's initial complaint in a timely manner.

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