St. Cloud City Council Meeting Heats Up Following Allegations of Open Meeting Law Violations

(KNSI) — Things got a little heated at the end of St. Cloud’s City Council meeting Monday night as Councilmember Mike Conway requested an investigation alleging other members are guilty of multiple open meeting law violations.

He spoke directly with KNSI News moments after the 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.” He specifically accused councilmembers George Hontos and Dr. Karen Larson of breaking the rule through email and other forms of communication.

Conway planned to discuss it at the November 6th meeting but removed the item from the agenda due to Dr. Larson’s absence. The item was added back to November 20th’s agenda but was removed by a majority vote, and there was no further conversation. Conway brought the issue up during the open discussion portion of the meeting on Monday.

“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.

Councilmember George Hontos also talked with KNSI News as he left the meeting and stated Conway wouldn’t push him around. “I do believe that his tactics are unfortunate. He acts as a bully, and he tries to intimidate and the last person he’s going to intimidate is myself.” He accused Conway of making a mountain out of a molehill. “I think it’s very childish on his part to initiate a censure for something that was an email communication that copied everybody on the council. And it had to do with procedure of the council, an internal thing.”

Hontos stated the emails had nothing to do with taxpayers, a development, a project, or anything on the agenda coming forward.

Dr. Larson also feels the subject has gotten out of hand. “This issue has been blown sky-high. It’s been made huge. It’s not a huge issue. We need a seminar. We need clear signals. We need clear understanding.” She agrees the biggest issue is everyone needs to be on the same page.

When asked by KNSI how the council will move forward to best serve the city, Larson explained, “By taking care of our internal communications better than we did this time.”

No other details about the communications were provided.

The city’s attorney, Renee Courtney, tells us the state’s open meeting law regarding email communication is complicated and unclear, and every case is different.

An open meeting law violation could result in a civil fine of up to $300. If an elected official is found to have violated the open meeting law three times, they could be removed from office.

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