City of Grand Forks
AGO 2021-O-02
Letter Opinion 2021-O-02
North Dakota Attorney General Opinion
April 16, 2021
ISSUED
TO: City of Grand Forks
OPEN
RECORDS AND MEETINGS OPINION
CITIZEN’S
REQUEST FOR OPINION
This
office received a request for an opinion under N.D.C.C.
§ 44-04-21.1 from Korrie Wenzel asking whether the City
of Grand Forks violated N.D.C.C. § 44-04-19 by holding a
meeting without notice.
FACTS
PRESENTED
Grand
Forks City Council member, Bret Weber, requested that Mayor
Brandon Bochenski put together an “expert panel”
in order to have a locally focused panel of experts to
provide their expertise and knowledge on COVID-19 pandemic
related concerns. Weber suggested members to serve on the
panel to the Mayor who sent a letter asking if the suggested
people were willing to serve on the panel.[1]
Four
meetings of the expert panel took place via Zoom. Notices of
the meetings were not provided to the public. Although the
other city council members were aware of the existence of the
expert panel, only Weber and the Mayor knew when the panel
would be meeting. The Mayor, Weber, and various city
personnel attended some of the meetings.
The
expert panel provided input to Mark Schill, a Grand Forks
consultant; Debbie Swanson, Director of Grand Forks Health
Department; Michael Dulitz, a Grand Forks Health Department
employee; Todd Feland, Grand Forks City Administrator; Weber;
and Mayor Bochenski. It also drafted a document entitled
“The Grand Forks Mayor’s COVID-19 Expert Panel
First Interim Report.” The report was discussed at the
August 24, 2020, meeting of the Grand Forks Committee of the
Whole.
ISSUE
Whether
the expert panel is a governing body of a public entity and
therefore subject to open meetings law.
ANALYSIS
A
“meeting” is defined as a “formal or
informal gathering or a work session . . . of [a] quorum of
the members of the governing body of a public entity
regarding public business.”2 A “governing
body” includes any group...
