State Finds No Clear Breach After St. Cloud City Council Open Meeting Law Violation Accusations

(KNSI) — Following a St. Cloud City Councilman’s accusations against fellow members of violating Minnesota’s open meeting laws, the Minnesota Department of Administration has issued an opinion.

In November, St. Cloud City Council member Mike Conway raised concerns that fellow council members might have violated Minnesota’s open meeting law. This came after Conway requested a meeting to discuss censuring an unnamed council member, but the item was removed from the agenda twice.

Then, during the open discussion portion of December 4th’s gathering, Conway accused council members George Hontos and Dr. Karen Larson of breaking the open meeting law. He also loosely implicated the rest of the council for potentially conducting city business outside of meetings. He spoke directly with KNSI News moments after that meeting to explain his position, telling us, “Ultimately, what I’ve asked for is a data request of all email communication between the council members since the beginning of the year. We’ll let the authorities look at it, review [it] and see if my belief is correct or not. So that’s kind of where we’re at. And now it is moved from the council having the open discussion to now we are going to have another agency look at [the] possibilities.”

That agency wasn’t immediately identified, and no timetable for the investigation was given.

At the May 6th city council meeting, it was announced that the data request was complete, and the emails were available. Through an open records request, KNSI News obtained dozens of emails surrounding the issue and submitted them to the Minnesota Department of Administration requesting an administration advisory opinion on whether a violation occurred. The state responded by saying the commissioner couldn’t determine a violation from the emails adding it’s unclear whether a quorum of council members discussed public business in an attempt to “circumvent the law.” The office says Minnesota case law has created complex standards for whether serial meetings or email communications violate open meeting law requirements.

KNSI News talked with Councilman Conway, who said his goal in inquiring was accomplished. “I’m satisfied with the information that’s been collected. I was able to get that information out and ultimately make it available to the public for people to make up their own minds. And as far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing more to be gained for me bringing it up any further.”

Councilman George Hontos was content with the ruling and told KNSI News he agreed with the state’s decision because the emails in question dealt with procedural issues, there was no aggrieved party, and none of the items talked about would come up for a vote, but took issue with how Conway handled it. “It was a very petty move on Conway’s part to try to intimidate us, I guess. And he’s messing with the wrong guy, quite frankly.”

Councilwoman Dr. Larson explained she had no problem bringing the concern forward but also took issue with how it was done. “It seems to me that the law may have been over-interpreted and done so in such a way that threatened to fracture the council into a divisive body instead of functioning productively.”

Conway said since he made the request, the council has held meetings and study sessions and moved forward.

According to the Office of Administration, the only way the issue would go further is if it were to go to a court of law. That would require a lawsuit filed by a resident.

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