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Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Ind. Law - Another editorial against serial meetings; General Assembly blamed

Adding its voice to that of the Evansville Courier& Press (see this ILB entry from Saturday), the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette today writes:

It’s not surprising that the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Indiana University Board of Trustees in a case alleging it broke the state’s Open Door Law when it fired basketball coach Bob Knight in 2000.

The trustees, after all, were only taking advantage of a handy loophole that allows public boards to circumvent the law by meeting in small groups. Then-IU President Myles Brand met with four trustees in the living room of his home while four others waited in another room. Thirty minutes later, he met with the second group: “To exclude any impropriety with respect to the Open Door Act,” Brand explained in a deposition.

Because a quorum was never present to discuss the firing, the definition of a public meeting was never met. The trustees met in a public session the following day to publicly fire the embattled coach.

Third District Judge Paul D. Mathias succinctly nailed the intentions of both the trustees and the General Assembly in his ruling: “The conduct of the IU Trustees was in direct contravention to the public policy behind the Open Door law,” he wrote. “While a more open process in matters of governance such as this might be preferable, the legislative branch of our state government has spoken. The law does not prohibit this conduct. Moreover and importantly, we know this because the General Assembly has repeatedly considered and declined to amend the Open Door Law to change the definition of a meeting.”

And it continues:
[Judge Mathias] goes on to cite the unsuccessful legislative attempts to close the loophole. Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield, has repeatedly sponsored bills that would prohibit governing bodies from holding a series of meetings to avoid a session with a quorum of voting members. The legislation was approved by the Senate this year, but died in a House committee for the second year in a row.

The court’s ruling is a clear invitation to fix the law, which is routinely abused by school boards and other public groups. If members of the General Assembly truly believe the public’s business is best done in public, they can demonstrate it by passing a law banning serial meetings.

Access the opinion in James R. Dillman, et al v. Trustees of Indiana University via this ILB entry.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 6, 2006 07:47 AM
Posted to Indiana Law