Palmer City Council discusses Open Meetings Act

PALMER — City council meetings are not known for their comedic respite, but Councilman David Fuller made an off-hand comment that had the whole room rolling during a recent Palmer City Council meeting.

Palmer Mayor Edna DeVries noted that Backcountry Bike and Ski would be having it’s re-opening on October 10th and wanted to see who was planning to attend. Fuller calmly mentioned newly-elected Councilwoman Julie Berberich, who co-owns Backcountry Bike and Ski with her husband.

“I think she’s going,” Fuller said.

While stating the obvious got Fuller the laugh, it was part of a strict adherence to law regarding the transparency of city business. Each governing body is required to follow the Open Meetings Act, a popular topic of concern amongst public commenters. The public is afforded the right to reasonable notice of changes and the opportunity to speak on their merits. City Attorney Michael Gatti presented an overview of the Open Meetings Act to the council on Tuesday, in light of a newly elected councilor with no prior experience as an elected official.

Gatti outlined the rules and requirements of the Open Meetings Act, how it has changed to evolve with technology and past violations. The council may enter into executive session, not privy to the public, for confidential matters, matters of personnel and matters that would adversely affect the finances of the municipality. The OMA also doesn’t apply to quasi-judicial decisions such as conditional use permits and matters that would require to the council to rule on personal interests. The manager’s meetings are also not subject to the OMA for efficiency.

“The manager really couldn’t manage if he had to give notice of every single meeting he had … That would be very difficult to run the government if the meetings were required to be open to the public,” Gatti said.

Gatti also noted a decision out of Fairbanks that allowed more than 100 fire service areas not to have to follow such strict requirements of public notice and input. It is the job of the city Clerk to provide for reasonable notice, which is why meeting agendas are posted into the Frontiersman weeks in advance. Gatti noted a past settlement involving members of the Assembly who would congregate at a restaurant following the meeting. Only three members of the council are allowed to meet at any one time outside of the publicly noticed meetings to discuss city matters. However, the entire council is free to meet outside of their meetings, so long as they do not discuss any city business.

“There’s also some gray are involved in that. If you’re at a social event not talking about governmental business, you can all be there. Now does that look good? It depends,” Gatti said.

Council members went over three different events at the meeting on Tuesday to confirm that no more than three were planning on attending. Gatti also warned of the dangers of discussing business during meetings via text message, and that texts sent between council members could be required to become public record. On emails that are included to the council, responses must not be sent out to all of the other recipients of the email. Gatti also detailed the possibility of violations via Facebook.

“Happily for me as city attorney, the city of palmer council, boards and commissions are very attentive to the Open Meetings Act,” Gatti said.

The council will begin their budget meetings starting Oct. 23 and continue every Tuesday through December.

“I can say it will be a balanced budget. By code, I have to present a balanced budget,” City Manager Nathan Wallace said. Wallace commended PalmerPolice Chief Lance Ketterling for the work of Officer Luke Szipszky and Officer Daniel Potter for their response to an incident at Fred Meyer on Monday, helping a man they’d had run ins with before to safety after self-harm.

“They care about our community and the citizens and this is a fine example of how they do that,” Wallace said.

Fuller noted during his council comments how impressed he was with the work of the Palmer Police Department. The council also questioned Wallace on the status of crosswalk projects at Gulkana Street and Valley Way, along Arctic Avenue. Issues with the width of the road and the high amount of traffic have slowed the progress. The council issued a proclamation naming October National Fire Prevention Month to Palmer Fire Chief John McNutt. The council also issued a proclamation to Janel Gagnon declaring October to be Domestic Violence Awareness Month.