MISSOULA – Missoula County hosted a board member training session on Thursday, July 27. The county brought in Dan Clark of the Local Government Center to lead the training for anyone serving on a public board.
Public boards, districts and commissions govern a vast number of public organizations and law-making bodies. Public boards control everything from public schools to county parks to the airport.
Clark hosted two sessions, attended by nearly 100 county residents who serve on various boards and commissions of some sort.
“What we do in the public sphere is different than what we do in our private lives,” said Clark in the first few minutes of the training. “There’s different expectations and different responsibilities that we might have.”
Among the items discussed were the basic principles of good governance, privacy of board members, the ability for the public and media to request public records and communication between members, the authority of a board chair and Montana’s open meeting laws.
Clark elaborated on the needs for public participation in government and transparency and accountability by the government, emphasizing that “you can’t be accountable unless you’re transparent.”
“If you are going to make decisions on behalf of the public, you need to do that in an open way,” said Clark. “You need to let the public engage in the decision-making process.”
Kim Myre, a board member for Phase Two of Double Arrow who also works for the board of county commissioners, said that her biggest takeaway was the emphasis on public participation.
“It is a public process and you do need to encourage the public to participate, in a broad spectrum, not just the vocal people,” said Myre.
Similar points stuck out to John Addis, a recent addition to the Seeley-Swan Hospital District.
“The two main takeaways for me were the need for transparency in what we do and the importance of giving the public a chance to be heard,” said Addis.
Most of the discussion was based off of three rights that are stated in the Montana Constitution: the Right to Participation, the Right to Know and the Right of Privacy. Local government bodies have to constantly balance those three rights in all their decisions and actions.
A few highlights:
• Any emails between board members are public record.
• Anytime a quorum (the minimum number required to conduct business; usually half plus one) of board members meets to hear, discuss or act on an issue, it is considered a meeting and must be open to the public—this includes group emails involving discussion and chance meetings in a coffee shop.
• A board chair may close a meeting if there is a matter of privacy that is considered to outweigh the public’s right to know.
• Any decision made in a closed meeting is valid but unless the decision includes matters of privacy, the board should vote in an open session.
• A public ‘open’ meeting occurs when there is a quorum present, the members hear, discuss or act upon issues in their jurisdiction, the public is notified and allowed to attend and appropriate minutes are kept.
The complete rules for how a board must act, and interact with the public, are spelled out in the Montana Code Annotated, specifically Title 2, Chapter 3: Public Participation in Governmental Operations.
Myre said that the training was something she thought could have easily stretched into an all-day event.
“Two hours went by really fast and people had so many questions and it was all interesting,” she said. “It was heartening to see all the enthusiasm from all of these volunteers representing their communities.”
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