2021-12-16 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Merit Appeals Board December 16, 2021 A brief review, purpose of the Sunshine Law is to protect the public's right to know, open governmental process to public scrutiny, and public participation thus, discussions, deliberations, decisions, and actions of governmental agencies shall be conducted as openly as possible. And next slide—agenda requirements. The agenda needs to describe all agenda items with reasonable specificity. So what does that mean? Basically, it means to ask the question—does the agenda provide enough information that members of the public could decide whether to participate in the meeting or not? So the "Neighbor Test" is something that is more like a commonsense test. Basically, it's asking someone that is not familiar with the Board to review the agenda and, if he or she cannot tell what subject the Board will be talking about at the meeting, then the agenda needs further clarification. So, it's like a reasonable person test and our agendas, again, are reviewed by the Chair as well as Glynis and myself and so those things are usually taken care of but always good to know as far as what's required for the agenda. Okay, next slide notice requirements. We always need to include in instructions at how to request an auxiliary aid or service, which is done as a matter of course. And, of course, language regarding the executive session must be put on the agenda. There is leeway—and so, executive session language is put on the agenda; however, keep in mind that if there is a need to go into executive session on an item that is not necessarily agendized, we still could do so. We have some leeway with that, but we always should put it on the agenda if it is anticipated. Okay, next slide—notice requirements. Of course, we need the date, time, and the place. At least one—so on this slide—we note here that at least one meeting location that is open to the public shall have audiovisual connection to enable public to provide testimony. And this will tie into other requirements that we'll cover a little bit later in the presentation. So, basically, if we're having an in-person meeting as we—as we're doing today, then there is no requirement for there to be an audiovisual location for members of the public. However, if we do have remote access, then there're going to be other requirements that where we would have to provide a location for members of the public to view the meeting audio -visually through a computerusually, like, a computer system or something to that effect—and have that site open to the public. And we'll get into that today. Okay. Continuing on—new notice requirements. Email and mailing address this is already done but, of course, must include electronic and postal contact information for public to submit testimony before the meeting. Inform members of the public on how to contemporaneously remotely view the meeting of the video and audio of the meeting through internet streaming or other means, and provide oral testimony in a manner that allows the Board members and other participants to hear testimony by internet or phone or by other means. Page 4