Time to work together

As the members of the recently constituted Lake Vermilion Pickleball Association have demonstrated, residents of Greenwood do know how to work together to accomplish good things for their community. When residents set a goal of building new pickleball courts, they organized and raised the money and the four new courts now located near the town hall are proof positive of the benefits of working cooperatively together.
If only the town board would take the hint.
For years, it seems, members of the town board have constantly found something to fight about. Indeed, the years of dysfunction in the township’s governance has become the stuff of legend in our region.
Most recently, the fight has focused on how meetings are noticed. For various reasons, the town board has moved its regular monthly meetings the past couple months, first due to a conflict with the Aug. 13 primary and the second time to accommodate a work conflict by one of the board members. A work conflict by a member isn’t the kind of thing that typically prompts a governmental body to change its meeting date, since they can typically conduct their business short a member. In the case of Greenwood, however, given the current 3-2 split on the town board, the absence of one member from the current majority could well limit the board’s ability to pass motions.
Maintaining a regular meeting schedule is valuable to the public, since those wishing to attend can generally rely on the predictable timing of those meetings to remember when to show up. That’s harder when meeting dates bounce around, even if the meetings are properly noticed.
In the case of Greenwood, of course, there would be more controversy to the story, raising issues so Byzantine as to make one’s head hurt.
The town board rescheduled their August regular meeting that conflicted with the primary to the next day, Aug. 14, a decision the board made at their regular meeting in July. In that motion, they referred to the rescheduled gathering as a special meeting, which would require posting the time, date, and purpose of the meeting three days prior. It appears the town clerk neglected to post it at the township office and when the issue was raised by one of the board members at the beginning of the Aug. 14 meeting, the board wisely opted to adjourn the meeting without taking any action.
Subsequent research on the issue by town officials as well as the Timberjay, however, concludes that the Aug. 14 meeting could have been rescheduled as a regular meeting without any extraordinary notice requirements, had the board opted to do so. That’s based on consultation with three attorneys, including Mark Anfinson, the Minnesota Newspaper Association’s attorney and one of the state’s foremost experts on the Open Meeting Law.
It appears the town board erred when it passed a motion that described its Aug. 14 meeting as “special” when it was actually its “regular” meeting on a different date.
This is a common misperception, one that isn’t helped by a training video transcript from the Minnesota Association of Townships, or MAT, provided by one of the offended board members, which suggests that by changing the date of a regular meeting, it automatically becomes a special meeting.
Based on a straightforward reading of the Open Meeting Law, specifically Minn. Stat. 13D.04, Subd. 1, it is clear that a governmental body can change the date of a regular meeting without it becoming a special meeting. It simply says that the date change needs to be noticed as per the requirements of a special meeting.
What’s more, as the township attorneys related to the town board chair, there is nothing in the law that prevents a governmental body from changing the dates of its regular meetings. Once approved and noted in the meeting minutes, no further public notice is even required.
Anfinson agreed with that assessment and points to Minn. Stat. 13D.04, Subd. 4, which implies that a meeting with a time and place recorded in the minutes of a prior, properly convened meeting does not require any additional notice.
While one can see both sides of the issue with the Aug. 14 meeting, the dispute went from esoteric to silly earlier this month when two board members walked out of the Sept. 12 regular meeting complaining that the agenda, which was properly posted three days in advance, should have referred to it as a “special” meeting. In fact, it appears there was no legal reason to make such a change, and even if there was, why would the offended board members grandstand about it at the meeting rather than address it when the agendas and packets were sent out days ahead of the meeting.
Unfortunately, some town board members appear more interested in conducting “gotcha” demonstrations than conducting the township’s legitimate business. Folks in Greenwood are capable of better.