AG: Sheckles, council violated Open Meetings Act at March 6 special meeting
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette
Thursday, April 19, 2012, 11 a.m. – Bardstown Mayor Bill Sheckles and the Bardstown City Council have been found in violation of two parts of the Kentucky Open Meetings Act.
In a letter dated Tuesday, April 17, 2012, Attorney General Jack Conway’s office notified the city and its attorney of their opinion the city indeed violated the Open Meetings Act when it failed to properly place notice of the special meeting on the doors at City Hall for a special meeting called for March 6, 2012. The city’s second Open Meetings Act violation occurred during the special meeting when Mayor Bill Sheckles did not restrict discussion at the meeting to the sole item on the meeting agenda.
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The AG opinion follows a March 19, 2012, complaint filed by Bardstown resident Kevin Brumley, who alleged in an eight-page complaint a wide range of issues that include alleged violations of the Open Meetings Act.
Brumley’s complaint also noted the meeting agenda was in error because it referred to a council vote for “approval of the Bardstown/Nelson County Fire Department Chief,” which Brumley said was incorrect because it implied the chief selection also was for the Bardstown-Nelson County Volunteer Fire Deparment Inc.
Brumley’s complaint alleges the mayor had no legal scope of authority “to install by coercion, strong arm tactics, blackmail, extortion or otherwise, any officers of a domestic non-stock Corporation. The Bardstown/Nelson County Fire Department referred to in the agenda just so happens to be a non-stock Corporation.”
CITY’S ANSWER. City Attorney Tom Donan answered Brumley’s initial complaint in a March 23, 2012 letter, in which Donan said the city disagreed with Brumley’s claim it city violated the Open Meetings Act.
According to Donan, the media were given more than the required 24 hour notification of the meeting, and notification was properly posted outside the City Council chambers more than 24 hours before the special meeting.
Donan said the city agreed the notice for the special meeting was defective because it did not properly reference the chief position. He further states that because of the error, no action could have been taken at the special meeting. He noted in his answer that no action was taken at the meeting.
After receiving the city’s response, Brumley filed an appeal with the Attorney Generals office.
AG DECISION. The AG’s office found the city did fail to provide proper notice of the March 6 special meeting; according to KRS 61.832(4)(c), the written notice of special meeting:
“… shall also be posted in a conspicuous place in the building where the special meeting will take place and in a conspicuous place in the building which houses the headquarters of the agency. The notice shall be calculated so that it shall be posted at least twenty-four (24) hours before the special meeting.”
To meet this requirement, notice should have been posted at Bardstown City Hall as well as the City Council chambers adjacent to the Recreation Center.
In regard to the off-topic comments by the mayor and a member of the audience, the AG’s office wrote that the fact there was no action taken at the special meeting did not make the off-topic remarks appropriate; the were still prohibited, even if they only marginally exceeded the scope of the topic of the special meeting.
BRUMLEY’S COMPLAINT. Neither the city’s attorney nor the AG’s office commented on a long list of complaints included in Brumley’s March 19, 2012, eight-page letter.
The first 5-1/2 pages of Brumley’s letter takes Mayor Bill Sheckles to task for his handling of the fire chief controversy that began after members of the Bardstown-Nelson County Volunteer Fire Deparment Inc. voted on Jan. 16, 2012, to elect a new chief. While the city’s ordinances at the time recognized the firefighters right to hold an annual election to select their chief, the mayor apparently did not. As a result, the city fire department and the incorporated fire department — two departments that have operated as one — had different fire chiefs.
“Your refusal to accept and honor the results of this election has resulted in more chaos and discord within the fire departments ranks in the past 2 months than in the previous 50 years put together,” Brumley wrote in his letter.
Brumley also alleges that the ordinances revised by the council – including the elimination of the fire chief election process and replacing it with an ordinance defining the relationship between the city and the incorporated fire department – were “nothing more than a subliminal move by you to garner dominion over the “Corporation” by coercion.”
In his response to Brumley’s initial complaint, Donan noted he did not address the complaints he believed were “opinions, innuendos and conclusions” because they were not related to the Open Meetings Act complaint. The AG’s office wrote in its opinion that their office “is not authorized to address the many tangential or underlying issues and concerns that Mr. Brumley raised in his appeal.”
The City of Bardstown has the right to appeal the AG’s ruling in Nelson Circuit Court.
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