As used in this Chapter, unless the context otherwise indicates,
the following terms mean:
Any meeting, record or vote closed to the public.
If requested by a member of the public, copies provided in
accord with the cost schedule established by this Article, if duplication
equipment is available.
All matters which relate in any way to performance of the
City's functions or the conduct of its business.
Any legislative, administrative or governmental entity created
by the Constitution or Statutes of this State, orders or ordinances
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 Board of Aldermen.
Any department or division of the City.
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 public governmental body's governing board or its
Chief Administrative Officer, policy or policy revisions or expenditures
of public funds.
Any quasi-public governmental body. The term "quasi-public
governmental body" means any person, corporation or partnership
organized or authorized to do business in this State 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 or
ordinance-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 the City, but only to the
extent that a meeting, record, or vote relates to such appropriation.
Any meeting of a public governmental body subject to this
Chapter at which any public business is discussed, decided, or public
policy formulated, whether corporeal or by means of communication
equipment. 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 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 and presented to the
public governmental body by a consultant or other professional service
paid for in whole or in part by public funds. 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 vote cast at any public meeting of any public governmental
body.
A.Â
All
meetings, records and votes are open to the public, except that any
meeting, record or vote relating to one (1) or more of the following
matters, as well as other materials designated elsewhere in this Chapter,
shall be closed unless the public governmental body votes to make
them public:
1.Â
Legal actions, causes of action or litigation involving a public
governmental body and any confidential or privileged communications
between a public governmental body or its representatives and its
attorneys. However, any minutes, vote or settlement agreement relating
to legal actions, causes of action or litigation involving a public
governmental body or any agent or entity representing its interests
or acting on its behalf or with its authority, including any insurance
company acting on behalf of a public governmental body as its insured,
shall be made public upon final disposition of the matter voted upon
or upon the signing by the parties of the settlement agreement, unless,
prior to final disposition, the settlement agreement is ordered closed
by a court after a written finding that the adverse impact to a plaintiff
or plaintiffs to the action clearly outweighs the public policy considerations
of Section 610.011, RSMo., however, the amount of any monies paid
by, or on behalf of, the public governmental body shall be disclosed;
provided however, in matters involving the exercise of the power of
eminent domain, the vote shall be announced or become public immediately
following the action on the motion to authorize institution of such
a legal action. Legal work product shall be considered a closed record.
2.Â
Leasing, purchase or sale of real estate by a public governmental
body where public knowledge of the transaction might adversely affect
the legal consideration therefor. However, any minutes or vote or
public record approving a contract relating to the leasing, purchase
or sale of real estate by a public governmental body shall be made
public within seventy-two (72) hours after execution of the lease,
purchase or sale of the real estate.
3.Â
Hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting of particular employees
by a public governmental body when personal information about the
employee is discussed or recorded. However, any vote on a final decision,
when taken by a public governmental body, to hire, fire, promote or
discipline an employee of a public governmental body must be made
available with a record of how each member voted to the public within
seventy-two (72) hours of the close of the meeting where such action
occurs; provided however, that any employee so affected shall be entitled
to prompt notice of such decision during the seventy-two (72) hour
period before such decision is made available to the public. As used
in this Subsection, the term "personal information" means information relating to the performance or merit of individual
employees.
4.Â
Non-judicial mental or physical health proceedings involving an identifiable
person, including medical, psychiatric, psychological, or alcoholism
or drug dependency diagnosis or treatment.
5.Â
Testing and examination materials, before the test or examination
is given or, if it is to be given again, before so given again.
6.Â
Welfare cases of identifiable individuals.
7.Â
Preparation, including any discussions or work product, on behalf
of a public governmental body or its representatives for negotiations
with employee groups.
8.Â
Software codes for electronic data processing and documentation thereof.
9.Â
Specifications for competitive bidding, until either the specifications
are officially approved by the public governmental body or the specifications
are published for bid.
10.Â
Sealed bids and related documents, until the bids are opened; and
sealed proposals and related documents or any documents related to
a negotiated contract until a contract is executed, or all proposals
are rejected.
11.Â
Individually identifiable personnel records, performance ratings
or records pertaining to employees or applicants for employment, except
that this exemption shall not apply to the names, positions, salaries
and lengths of service of officers and employees of public agencies
once they are employed as such.
12.Â
Records which are protected from disclosure by law.
13.Â
Meetings and public records relating to scientific and technological
innovations in which the owner has a proprietary interest.
14.Â
Records relating to municipal hotlines established for the reporting
of abuse and wrongdoing.
15.Â
Confidential or privileged communications between a public governmental
body and its auditor, including all auditor work product.
16.Â
In preparation for and implementation of electric restructuring,
a municipal electric utility may close that portion of its financial
records and business plans which contains information regarding the
name of the suppliers of services to said utility and the cost of
such services, and the records and business plans concerning the municipal
electric utility's future marketing and service expansion areas. However,
this exception shall not be construed to limit access to other records
of a municipal electric utility including, but not limited to, the
names and addresses of its business and residential customers, its
financial reports including, but not limited to, its budget, annual
reports, and other financial statements prepared in the course of
business, and other records maintained in the course of doing business
as a municipal electric utility. This exception shall become null
and void if the State of Missouri fails to implement by December 31,
2001, electric restructuring through the adoption of Statutes permitting
the same in this State.
In order to allow the fullest cooperation by employees and members
of the public in investigation of matters wherein an employee of the
City is alleged to have engaged in any form of misconduct, all files,
records and documents relating to investigations of allegations of
misconduct by City employees will be considered to be personnel records
and shall be closed records under the custody of the respective department
head.
A.Â
All
information obtained by the City regarding medical examinations, medical
condition or medical history of City employees or job applicants,
if retained by the City, shall be collected and maintained on separate
forms and in separate medical files and shall be treated as closed
and confidential records, except that:
1.Â
Supervisors and managers may be informed regarding necessary restrictions
on the work duties of employees and necessary accommodations;
2.Â
First aid and safety personnel may be informed, when appropriate,
if the information reflects the existence of a disability which might
require emergency treatment; or
3.Â
Government officials investigating compliance with State or Federal
law pertaining to treatment of persons with disabilities may be allowed
access to such records.
A.Â
In
order to protect reasonable expectations of privacy on the part of
persons having dealings with the City, City records containing information
or entries of a personal, confidential, private or proprietary nature
including, but not limited to, income, sales data, financial circumstances,
household and family relationships, social security numbers, dates
of birth, insurance information and other information which reasonable
persons generally regard as private and not a customary subject for
public discourse, which information or entries have been provided
to the City by one complying with regulations requiring the disclosure
of such information, shall be excised from copies of City records
disclosed or provided to members of the public other than those persons
to whom the information of entries pertain. Persons desiring access
to information or entries excised from such records may file a supplementary
written request with the City Clerk for disclosure of material to
be specified in the request, which request should state:
B.Â
The
City Clerk may afford all interested parties, including the persons
to whom the information pertains, a reasonable time within which to
comment on the requested disclosure prior to acting further on the
request. If an interested person objects to the disclosure of the
requested information, the City Clerk may conduct a hearing at which
all interested parties may be heard. At such hearing the Clerk shall
consider, among such other factors as may be reasonable and relevant:
1.Â
The requirements and intent of State law, City ordinances and this
policy;
2.Â
The legitimate expectations of privacy on the part of interested
parties;
3.Â
The personal, confidential, private or proprietary nature of the
information at issue;
4.Â
Whether the information was obtained by the City under compulsion
of law or was freely and voluntarily provided by the persons objecting
to the disclosure; and
5.Â
The public purposes to be served by disclosure of the requested information.
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If the City Clerk determines that disclosure is legally required
or would otherwise serve the best interests of the public and that
such requirements or purpose outweigh the legitimate concerns or interest
of the persons to whom the information pertains, the Clerk shall provide
the requested information to the requesting party.
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C.Â
In addition to or in lieu of the hearing described above, the City Clerk may afford all interested parties a reasonable opportunity to seek judicial review of or relief from the proposed disclosure. The City Clerk may also utilize the procedures for judicial determination and/or opinion solicitation provided in Section 120.120.
A.Â
All
public governmental bodies 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. 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 the appropriate bulletin board at the City
Hall.
B.Â
Notice conforming with all of the requirements of Subsection (A) of this Section shall be given at least twenty-four (24) hours, exclusive of weekends and holidays when City Hall is closed, prior to the commencement of any meeting of a 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.
C.Â
Each governmental body proposing to hold a closed meeting or vote shall give notice of the time, date and place of such closed meeting or vote and the reason for holding it by reference to a specific exception allowed pursuant to Section 120.020 hereof. The notice shall be the same as described in Subsection (A) herein.
D.Â
A formally
constituted subunit of a parent governmental body may conduct a meeting
without notice 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.
A.Â
Except as set forth in Subsection (C) of Section 120.060, no meeting or vote may be closed without an affirmative public vote of the majority of a quorum of the public governmental body. The vote of each member of the governmental body on the question of closing a public meeting or vote and the specific reason for closing that public meeting or vote by reference to a specific Section of this Chapter shall be announced publicly at an open meeting of the governmental body and entered into the minutes.
B.Â
Any meeting or vote closed pursuant to Section 120.020 shall be closed only to the extent necessary for the specific reason announced to justify the closed meeting or vote. Public governmental bodies shall not discuss any business in a closed meeting, record or vote. Public governmental bodies holding a closed meeting must close only an existing portion of the meeting facility necessary to house the members of the public governmental body in the closed session, allowing members of the public to remain to attend any subsequent open session held by the public governmental body following the closed session.
A.Â
Except as provided in Section 120.020, rules authorized pursuant to Article III of the Missouri Constitution and as otherwise provided by law, all votes shall be recorded, and if a roll call is taken, as to attribute each "yea" and "nay" vote, or abstinence if not voting, to the name of the individual member of the public governmental body. Any 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.
B.Â
A journal
or minutes of open meetings shall be taken and retained by the public
governmental body including, but not limited to, a record of any vote
taken at such meeting. The minutes shall include the date, time, place,
members present, members absent, and a record of votes taken. When
a roll call vote is taken, the minutes shall attribute each "yea"
and "nay" vote, or abstinence if not voting, to the name of the individual
member of the public governmental body.
A.Â
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. At any public meeting conducted by telephone or other
electronic means, the public shall be allowed to observe and attend
the public meeting at a designated location identified in the notice
of the meeting. Every reasonable effort shall be made to grant special
access to the meeting to handicapped or disabled individuals.
B.Â
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.
If a public record contains material which is not exempt from
disclosure, as well as material which is exempt from disclosure, the
custodian shall separate the exempt and non-exempt material and make
the non-exempt material available for examination and copying in accord
with the policies provided herein. When designing a public record
the custodian shall, to the extent practicable, facilitate a separation
of exempt from non-exempt information. If the separation is readily
apparent to a person requesting to inspect or receive copies of the
form, the custodian shall generally describe the material exempted
unless that description would reveal the contents of the exempt information
and thus defeat the purpose of the exemption.
A.Â
The
City Clerk shall be the custodian of records and will be responsible
for maintenance and control of all records. The 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 herein.
B.Â
The
custodian shall provide public access to all public records as soon
as possible but no later than the end of the third (3rd) business
day following the date the request is received by the custodian. If
additional delay is necessary, the custodian shall give an explanation
for the delay and the place and the earliest time and date the record
will be available for inspection.
C.Â
If
a request for access is denied, the custodian shall provide, upon
request, 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 requester no later than the
end of the third (3rd) business day following the date that the request
for the statement is received.
A public governmental body or record custodian in doubt about
the legality of closing a particular meeting, record or vote may,
subject to approval by the Board of Aldermen, bring suit at the expense
of the public governmental body in the Circuit Court for the County
of Webster to ascertain the propriety of such action. In addition,
subject to approval by the Board of Aldermen, the public governmental
body or custodian may seek a formal opinion of the Attorney General
or an attorney for the City regarding the propriety of such action.
In such events, the proposed closed meeting or public access to the
record or vote shall be deferred for a reasonable time pending the
outcome of the actions so taken.
[Ord. No. 436 §§1 —
2, 7-19-2004; Ord. No.
848 §1, 11-2-2015]
The custodian shall charge fees as dictated by Section 610.026,
RSMo., for requested copies. Said fees for copying such records shall
not exceed the actual cost of document search and duplication. The
custodian may require payment prior to duplicating any documents.
As used in this Article, the following terms shall have the
following definitions:
An actual restraint of the person of the defendant, or by
his/her submission to the custody of the officer, under authority
of a warrant or otherwise for a criminal violation which results in
the issuance of a summons or the person being booked.
A record of a law enforcement agency of an arrest and of
any detention or confinement incident thereto together with the charge
therefor.
An investigation in which no further action will be taken
by a law enforcement agency or officer for any of the following reasons:
A decision by the law enforcement agency not to pursue the case.
Expiration of the time to file criminal charges pursuant to
the applicable statute of limitations, or ten (10) years after the
commission of the offense, whichever date earliest occurs.
Finality of the convictions of all persons convicted on the
basis of the information contained in the investigative report, by
exhaustion of or expiration of all rights of appeal of such persons.
A record of a law enforcement agency consisting of the date,
time, specific location, name of the victim, and immediate facts and
circumstances surrounding the initial report of a crime or incident,
including any logs of reported crimes, accidents and complaints maintained
by that agency.
A record, other than an arrest or incident report, prepared
by personnel of a law enforcement agency inquiring into a crime or
suspected crime either in response to an incident report or in response
to evidence developed by Law Enforcement Officers in the course of
their duties.
A.Â
The Police Department of the City shall maintain records of all incidents reported to the Police Department and investigations and arrests made by the Police Department. All incident reports and arrest reports shall be open records. Notwithstanding any other provision of law other than the provisions of Subsection (C) of this Section or Section 320.083, RSMo., investigative reports of the Police Department are closed records until the investigation becomes inactive. If any person is arrested and not charged with an offense against the law within thirty (30) days of the person's arrest, the arrest report shall thereafter be a closed record except that the disposition portion of the record may be accessed except as provided in Section 120.170.
B.Â
Except as provided in Subsections (C) and (D) of this Section, if any portion of a record or document of a Police Department Officer or the Police Department, other than an arrest report, which would otherwise be open, contains information that is reasonably likely to pose a clear and present danger to the safety of any victim, witness, undercover officer, or other person; or jeopardize a criminal investigation, including records which would disclose the identity of a source wishing to remain confidential or a suspect not in custody; or which would disclose techniques, procedures or guidelines for Police Department investigations or prosecutions, that portion of the record shall be closed and shall be redacted from any record made available pursuant to this Chapter.
C.Â
Any person, attorney for a person, or insurer of a person involved in any incident or whose property is involved in an incident may obtain any records closed pursuant to this Section or Section 120.170 for purposes of investigation of any civil claim or defense, as provided by this Subsection. Any individual, his/her attorney or insurer involved in an incident or whose property is involved in an incident, upon written request, may obtain a complete unaltered and unedited incident report concerning the incident and may obtain access to other records closed by the Police Department pursuant to this Section. Within thirty (30) days of such request, the Police Department shall provide the requested material or file a motion pursuant to this Subsection with the Circuit Court having jurisdiction over the Police Department stating that the safety of the victim, witness or other individual cannot be reasonably ensured, or that a criminal investigation is likely to be jeopardized. Pursuant to Section 610.100(4), RSMo., if, based on such motion, the court finds for the Police Department, the court shall either order the record closed or order such portion of the record that should be closed to be redacted from any record made available pursuant to this Subsection.
D.Â
The
victim of an offense as provided in Chapter 566, RSMo., may request
that his/her identity be kept confidential until a charge relating
to such incident is filed.
If the person arrested is charged but the case is subsequently nolle prossed, dismissed, or the accused is found not guilty, or imposition of sentence is suspended in the court in which the action is prosecuted, official records pertaining to the case shall thereafter be closed records when such case is finally terminated, except as provided in Section 120.170, and except that the court's judgment or order or the final action taken by the prosecutor in such matters may be accessed. If the accused is found not guilty due to mental disease or defect pursuant to Section 552.030, RSMo., official records pertaining to the case shall thereafter be closed records upon such findings, except that the disposition may be accessed only by law enforcement agencies, child care agencies, facilities as defined in Section 198.006, RSMo., and in-home services provider agencies as defined in Section 660.250, RSMo., in the manner established by Section 120.170.
A.Â
Records
required to be closed shall not be destroyed; they shall be inaccessible
to the general public and to all persons other than the defendant
except as provided in this Section and Section 43.507, RSMo. They
shall be available to the Sentencing Advisory Commission created in
Section 558.019, RSMo., for the purpose of studying sentencing practices
and only to courts, law enforcement agencies, child care agencies,
Department of Revenue for driving record purposes, facilities as defined
in Section 198.006, RSMo., in-home services provider agencies as defined
in Section 660.250, RSMo., the Division of Workers' Compensation for
the purposes of determining eligibility for crime victims' compensation
pursuant to Sections 595.010 to 595.075, RSMo., and Federal agencies
for purposes of prosecution, sentencing, parole consideration, criminal
justice employment, child care employment, nursing home employment
and to Federal agencies for such investigative purposes as authorized
by law or presidential executive order. These records shall be made
available for the above purposes regardless of any previous statutory
provision which had closed such records to certain agencies or for
certain purposes. All records which are closed records shall be removed
from the records of the Police Department and Municipal Court which
are available to the public and shall be kept in separate records
which are to be held confidential and, where possible, pages of the
public record shall be retyped or rewritten omitting those portions
of the record which deal with the defendant's case. If retyping or
rewriting is not feasible because of the permanent nature of the record
books, such record entries shall be blacked out and recopied in a
confidential book.
B.Â
As
used in this Section, the term "child care" includes
providers and youth services agencies as those terms are defined in
Section 43.540, RSMo., elementary and secondary school teachers, and
elementary and secondary school bus drivers, whether such drivers
are employed by a school or an entity which has contracted with the
school to provide transportation services.
Excepted as provided by this Section, any information acquired by the Police Department by way of a complaint or report of a crime made by telephone contact using the emergency number "911" shall be inaccessible to the general public. However, information consisting of the date, time, specific location, and immediate facts and circumstances surrounding the initial report of the crime or incident shall be considered to be an incident report and subject to Section 120.150. Any closed records pursuant to this Section shall be available upon request by law enforcement agencies or the Division of Workers' Compensation or pursuant to a valid court order authorizing disclosure upon motion and good cause shown.
A.Â
Except as provided in Subsection (B) of this Section, the City of Rogersville Police Department, if it maintains a daily log or record that lists suspected crimes, accidents or complaints, shall make available the following information for inspection and copying by the public:
B.Â
The Police Department, having custody of an accident report or incident report, as defined in Section 120.140, shall not release for sixty (60) days after the date of the accident or incident the report containing the factual circumstances or general description of any injuries as provided in paragraphs (c) and (d) of Subdivision (3) of Subsection (A) of this Section to a person that is not an interested party. For the purposes of this Subsection, an "interested party" is any law enforcement agency, any person who was involved in the
accident or incident, the Street Department of the jurisdiction involved,
the owner of any vehicle involved in the accident or incident, the
insurance company, physician or family member of any person involved
in the accident or incident, or any attorney, or any member of the
news media.