As many as four seats on the Student Senate may be unexpectedly vacant if the Senate is found to have violated Oregon Public Meeting Law at a June meeting.
Sen. Neil Brown’s grievance against former Senate President Jonathan Rosenberg requests that a June 13 meeting be invalidated because minutes were not taken at the meeting – a direct violation of ORS 192.650, which requires that all public bodies “provide for the taking of written minutes of all its meetings.” ORS 192.680 says the penalty for violating the law is that the decisions be voided.
There is no question that the Senate is required to follow the public meeting law. The ASUO governing documents, known as the “Green Tape Notebook,” spell out this requirement quite clearly and the issue came up at several meetings last year. Rosenberg himself had been told on several occasions that the Senate was required to follow the law.
As President, Rosenberg should have been aware that the law requires minutes to be taken during the meeting. There is no excuse for any violation of the law.
After the meeting, Rosenberg, along with the ASUO executive, pieced together minutes from memory. This document is full of holes and does not serve, as the law requires, as “a true reflection of the matters discussed at the meeting and the views of the participants.”
Moreover, the law clearly states that minutes must be taken during the meeting. A participant’s recollection after the fact is not an official record.
While some may view Brown’s grievance (and past Emerald articles pointing out the problem) as trivial, any violation of the law should be taken seriously.
The Senate is, by definition, a public body and should be held to the same standards as any other group covered by the law. If the Eugene City Council were to meet without taking minutes, the meeting would be invalidated and the June 13 Senate meeting should be as well.
Meeting minutes are essential because they are often the only record – other than media reports – of what actually occurred in a meeting. Government bodies need to be transparent in order to be accountable to their constituents; minutes are taken so the public can keep track of issues such as how officials vote or how much money is allocated.
The Green Tape Notebook clearly states that the Student Senate and all its subcommittees are bound to the Oregon Public Meeting Law and further states that minutes must be taken.
On several occasions last year, Senators expressed a lack of knowledge not only about what was required by the public meeting law, but also the very fact that they were bound to it. This is a frightening idea. A body that controls public money – $11 million in student fees, to be exact – must be held accountable for its actions. If its own members are unaware that they are bound to the law, the public can not trust the body. A transparent government is an effective government.
If the meeting is invalidated, all decisions made during the meeting, including nominations of four Senators who will serve this year, will have to be heard again. At this point it is unclear whether those Senators would be appointed in a second vote; however, no illegal meeting should be allowed to remain on the record.
The penalty for not taking minutes is spelled out in the law, in black and white, clear as crystal.
“A decision made by a governing body of a public body in violation of ORS 192.610 to 192.690 shall be voidable.”