[CC 1997 §2.50; Ord. No. 2852-97, 4-16-1997; Ord. No.
3026-99 §1, 1-6-1999; Ord. No. 3570-04 §1, 8-18-2004]
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 Manager 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 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.
[CC 1997 §2.51; Ord. No. 2852-97, 4-16-1997; Ord. No.
3026-99 §2, 1-6-1999; Ord. No. 3570-04 §2, 8-18-2004; Ord. No. 4193-11 §1, 12-21-2011]
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 (24) 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.
[CC 1997 §2.52; Ord. No. 2852-97, 4-16-1997; Ord. No.
3026-99 §3, 1-6-1999; Ord. No. 3570-04 §3, 8-18-2004]
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
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. 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.
[CC 1997 §2.53; Ord. No. 2852-97, 4-16-1997]
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. In accord with the provisions of Section 2 of
Article VII of the City Charter, which designates the City Manager
as Personnel Director of the City, the City Manager shall be the custodian
of all personnel records 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.
[CC 1997 §2.54; Ord. No. 2852-97, 4-16-1997; Ord. No.
3026-99 §4, 1-6-1999; Ord. No. 3570-04 §4, 8-18-2004]
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 120.060 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 (3rd)
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 (3rd) 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.
[CC 1997 §2.55; Ord. No. 2852-97, 4-16-1997; Ord. No.
3026-99 §5, 1-6-1999; Ord. No. 3570-04 §5, 8-18-2004]
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.
