[R.O. 2008 § 140.010; Ord. No. 5110 § 1, 12-14-2006]
As used in this Chapter, the following
terms shall have the following definitions:
Any meeting, record or vote closed to the public.
If requested by a member of the public, copies provided as
detailed in the provisions of this Chapter, if duplication equipment
is available.
All matters which relate in any way to the performance of
the City's functions or the conduct of its business.
Any legislative, administrative, governmental entity created
by the Constitution or Statutes of this State, by order or ordinance
of the City, judicial entities when operating in an administrative
capacity or by executive order, including:
Any advisory committee or commission
appointed by the Mayor or City Council;
Any other legislative or administrative
governmental deliberative body under the direction of three (3) or
more elected or appointed members having rulemaking or quasi-judicial
power;
Any committee appointed by or at
the direction of any of the entities and which is authorized to report
to any of the above named entities, any advisory committee appointed
by or at the direction of any of the named entities for the specific
purpose of recommending, directly to the City Council or the City
Administrator and/or Clerk, policy or policy revisions or expenditures
of public funds. The custodian of the records of any public governmental
body shall maintain a list of the policy advisory committees described
in this Subsection; and
Any quasi-public governmental body.
Any meeting of a public governmental body subject to Article I of this Chapter at which any public business is discussed, decided or public policy formulated, whether such meeting is conducted in person or by means of communication equipment, including, but not limited to, conference call, video conference, Internet chat or Internet message board. The term "public meeting" shall not include an informal gathering of members of a public governmental body for ministerial or social purposes when there is no intent to avoid the purposes of this Chapter, but the term shall include a public vote of all or a majority of the members of a public governmental body, by electronic communication or any other means, conducted in lieu of holding a public meeting with the members of the public governmental body gathered at one (1) location in order to conduct public business.
Any record, whether written or electronically stored, retained
by or of any public governmental body including any report, survey,
memorandum or other document or study prepared for the public governmental
body by a consultant or other professional service paid for in whole
or in part by public funds, including records created or maintained
by private contractors under an agreement with a public governmental
body or on behalf of a public governmental body. The term "public
record" shall not include any internal memorandum or letter received
or prepared by or on behalf of a member of a public governmental body
consisting of advice, opinions and recommendations in connection with
the deliberative decision-making process of said body unless such
records are retained by the public governmental body or presented
at a public meeting. Any document or study prepared for a public governmental
body by a consultant or other professional service as described in
this Chapter shall be retained by the public governmental body in
the same manner as any other public record.
Any vote, whether conducted in person, by telephone or by
any other electronic means, cast at any public meeting of any public
governmental body.
Any person, corporation or partnership organized or authorized
to do business in the State of Missouri pursuant to the provisions
of Chapters 352, 353 or 355, RSMo., or unincorporated association
which either:
Has as its primary purpose to enter
into contracts with public governmental bodies, or to engage primarily
in activities carried out pursuant to an agreement or agreements with
public governmental bodies; or
Performs a public function, as evidenced
by a statutorily based capacity, to confer or otherwise advance, through
approval, recommendation or other means, the allocation or issuance
of tax credits, tax abatement, public debt, tax exempt debt, rights
of eminent domain, or the contracting of lease-back agreements on
structures whose annualized payments commit public tax revenues; or
any association that directly accepts the appropriation of money from
a public governmental body, but only to the extent that a meeting,
record or vote relates to such appropriation.
[R.O. 2008 § 140.020; Ord. No. 5110 § 1, 12-14-2006; Ord. No. 5758 § 1, 12-8-2011]
A.
All public meetings shall be open to the
public and public votes and public records shall be open to the public
for inspection and duplication.
B.
Each public governmental body shall give
notice of the time, date and place of each meeting and its tentative
agenda in a manner reasonably calculated to advise the public of the
matters to be considered and if the meeting will be conducted by telephone
or other electronic means, the notice of the meeting shall identify
the mode by which the meeting will be conducted and the designated
location where the public may observe and attend the meeting. If a
public body plans to meet by Internet chat, Internet message board
or other computer link, it shall post a notice of the meeting on its
website in addition to its principal office and shall notify the public
how to access that meeting. Reasonable notice shall include making
available copies of the notice to any representative of the news media
who requests notice of meetings of a particular public governmental
body concurrent with the notice being made available to the members
of the particular governmental body and posting the notice on a bulletin
board at City Hall or other prominent place which is easily accessible
to the public and clearly designated for that purpose at the City
Hall.
C.
The notice shall be given at least twenty-four (24) hours, exclusive of weekends and holidays when the City Hall is closed, prior to the commencement of any meeting of any governmental body unless for good cause such notice is impossible or impractical, in which case as much notice as is reasonably possible shall be given; provided however, that for any public meeting where a vote of the City Council is required to implement a tax increase, or with respect to a retail development project when the City Council votes to utilize the power of eminent domain, create a transportation development district or a community improvement district, or approve a redevelopment plan that pledges public funds as financing for the project or plan, the City Council shall give notice conforming with all the requirements of law at least four (4) days before the City Council may vote on such issues, exclusive of weekends and holidays when the facility is closed, and provided further that the exception above and in Subsection (E) below concerning shorter reasonable notice periods if required notice is impossible or impractical shall not apply to meetings requiring four (4) days' notice.
D.
Each meeting shall be held at a place reasonably
accessible to the public and of sufficient size to accommodate the
anticipated attendance by members of the public and at a time reasonably
convenient to the public, unless for good cause such a place or time
is impossible or impractical. Every reasonable effort shall be made
to grant special access to the meeting to handicapped or disabled
individuals.
E.
When it is necessary to hold a meeting
on less than twenty-four hours' notice, or at a place that is not
reasonably accessible to the public, or at a time that is not reasonably
convenient to the public, the nature of the good cause justifying
that departure from the normal requirements shall be stated in the
minutes.
F.
A public body shall allow for the recording
by audiotape, videotape or other electronic means of any open meeting.
A public body may establish guidelines regarding the manner in which
such recording is conducted so as to minimize disruption to the meeting.
No audio recording of any meeting, record or vote closed pursuant
to the provisions of Section 610.021, RSMo., shall be allowed without
permission of the public body; any person who violates this provision
shall be guilty of an ordinance violation and punished by imprisonment
for a period not to exceed fifteen (15) days, a fine not to exceed
three hundred dollars ($300.00), or by both such fine and imprisonment.
G.
A formally constituted subunit of a parent
governmental body may conduct a meeting without notice as required
by this Section during a lawful meeting of the parent governmental
body, a recess in that meeting or immediately following that meeting,
if the meeting of the subunit is publicly announced at the parent
meeting and the subject of the meeting reasonably coincides with the
subjects discussed or acted upon by the parent governmental body.
H.
A journal or minutes of open and closed
meetings shall be taken and retained by the public governmental body
including, but not limited to, a record of any votes taken at such
meeting. The minutes shall include the date, time, place, members
present, members absent and a record of any votes taken.
[R.O. 2008 § 140.030; Ord. No. 5110 § 1, 12-14-2006; Ord. No. 6794 § 1, 7-8-2021]
Except as provided in Section 140.070, rules authorized pursuant to Article III of the Missouri Constitution and as otherwise provided by law, all votes shall be recorded, and when a roll call is taken, as to attribute each "aye" and "nay" vote, or abstinence if not voting, to the name of the individual member of the public governmental body. Votes taken during a closed meeting shall be taken by roll call. All public meetings shall be open to the public and public votes and public records shall be open to the public for inspection and duplication. All votes taken by roll call in meetings of a public governmental body consisting of members who are all elected, except for the Missouri General Assembly and any committee established by a public governmental body, shall be cast by members of the public governmental body who are physically present and in attendance at the meeting or who are participating by videoconferencing. When it is necessary to take votes by roll call in a meeting of the public governmental body, due to an emergency of the public body, with a quorum of the members of the public body physically present and in attendance and less than a quorum of the members of the public governmental body participating via telephone, facsimile, Internet or any other voice or electronic means, the nature of the emergency of the public body justifying that departure from the normal requirements shall be stated in the minutes. Where such emergency exists, the votes taken shall be regarded as if all members were physically present and in attendance at the meeting.
[R.O. 2008 § 140.040; Ord. No. 5110 § 1, 12-14-2006]
A.
Except as otherwise provided in this Article,
the City Clerk shall be the general custodian of records and shall
thereby be responsible for the maintenance of all City records not
entrusted to the care of another official of the City. The Chief of
Police shall be the custodian of all Police Department records and
particularly all closed records of the Police Department. The Clerk
of the Municipal Court, acting on behalf of the judge, shall be custodian
of all Municipal Court records and particularly of all closed court
records.
B.
Each custodian may designate deputy custodians
in operating departments of the City and such other departments or
offices as the custodian may determine. Deputy custodians shall conduct
matters relating to public records and meetings in accord with the
policies enumerated in this Article.
[R.O. 2008 § 140.050; Ord. No. 5110 § 1, 12-14-2006]
A.
Except as otherwise provided by law, the City shall provide access to and, upon request, furnish copies of the City's public records subject to the provisions of Section 140.060 of this Chapter relating to copying fees. No person shall remove original public records from the City Hall or from the office of the custodian of records without written permission of the custodian. No public governmental body shall grant to any person or entity, whether by contract, license or otherwise, the exclusive right to access and disseminate any public record unless the granting of such right is necessary to facilitate coordination with, or uniformity among, industry regulators having similar authority.
B.
The custodian of records may require persons
seeking access to public records to submit such request in writing
and/or on a form designated by the custodian for such purpose. Such
written request shall be sufficiently particular to reasonably apprise
the custodian of the records sought.
C.
Each request for access to a public record
shall be acted upon as soon as possible but in no event later than
the end of the third business day following the date the request is
received by the custodian of records of the City. If records are requested
in a certain format, the public body shall provide the records in
the requested format, if such format is available. If access to the
public record is not granted immediately, the custodian shall give
a detailed explanation of the cause for further delay and the place
and earliest time and date that the record will be available for inspection.
This period for document production may exceed three (3) days for
reasonable cause.
D.
If a request for access is denied, the
custodian of records shall, upon request, provide a written statement
of the grounds for such denial. Such statement shall cite the specific
provision of law under which access is denied and shall be furnished
to the requestor no later than the end of the third business day following
the date that the request for the statement is received.
E.
Any member of a public governmental body
who transmits any message relating to public business by electronic
means shall also concurrently transmit that message to either the
member's public office computer or the custodian of records in the
same format. The provisions of this Subsection shall only apply to
messages sent to other members of that body so that, when counting
the sender, a majority of the body's members are copied. Any such
message received by the custodian or at the member's office computer
shall be a public record, subject, however, to the exceptions for
closed records as provided by law.
[R.O. 2008 § 140.060; Ord. No. 5110 § 1, 12-14-2006]
A.
Fees for copying public records shall not
exceed ten cents ($0.10) per page for a paper copy not larger than
nine (9) by fourteen (14) inches, plus an hourly fee for duplicating
time not to exceed the average hourly rate of pay for clerical staff
of the City. Research time required for fulfilling records requests
may be charged at the actual cost of research time. Based on the scope
of the request, the City shall produce the copies using employees
of the City that result in the lowest amount of charges for search,
research and duplication time. Prior to producing copies of the requested
records, the person requesting the records may request the City to
provide an estimate of the cost to the person requesting the records.
The custodian shall receive or may require payment prior to duplicating
documents.
B.
Fees for providing access to public records
maintained on computer facilities, recording tapes or disks, videotapes
or films, pictures, maps, slides, graphics, illustrations or similar
audio or visual items or devices and for paper copies larger than
nine (9) by fourteen (14) inches shall include only the cost of copies,
staff time, which shall not exceed the average hourly rate of pay
for staff of the City required for making copies and programming,
if necessary, and the cost of the disk or tape or other medium used
for the duplication. Fees for maps, blueprints or plats that require
special expertise to duplicate may include the actual rate of compensation
for the trained personnel required to duplicate such maps, blueprints
or plats. If programming is required beyond the customary and usual
level to comply with a request for records or information, the fees
for compliance may include the actual costs of such programming.
