05/30/2013 Open Government Commission Regular Meeting Adopted 09/09/2013
Open Government Commission Meeting
Minutes 5-30-2013
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GILROY OPEN GOVERNMENT COMMISSION
MINUTES
Thursday, May 30, 2013
I. OPENING
A. Call to Order and Roll Call
Chairperson Woodward called the meeting to order at 6:02 p.m.
Roll Call:
Commissioner Dion Bracco
Commissioner Robert Esposito
Commissioner Jack Foley
Commissioner Walter Glines
Commissioner Perry Woodward
II. PRESENTATIONS TO THE OPEN GOVERNMENT COMMISSION
A. PUBLIC COMMENT BY MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC ON ITEMS NOT ON THE
AGENDA, BUT WITHIN THE SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION OF THE
COMMISSION
There were no public comments on items not on the agenda.
B. Mayor Gage’s Presentation to the Open Government Commission
Mayor Gage gave his presentation to the Commission sharing his thoughts on the
ordinance and procedures with regards to additional transparency.
Commissioner Glines spoke on how the Commission could be more effective.
Commissioner Foley suggested surveying the Department Head team to see how the
ordinance could be more effective.
The Mayor spoke on the impacts on the City Clerk and other employees, and then
spoke on the need to reflect on the impacts of the ordinance as it had been in place for
some time. He then went on to discuss the voting to enter into closed session.
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Chairperson Woodward explained that the Council entered into closed session on non-
litigation items and voted whether to remain in closed session, whereas litigation items
were voted on in open session.
Acting City Attorney Faber agreed that the description .
Mayor Gage went on to discuss transparency with regards to public official’s calendars
and the need to weigh the benefit to the public.
Acting City Attorney Faber spoke on a recent litigation issue against the City of San
Jose regarding the request for public official’s personal email accounts and went on to
describe the need to revisit the issue of providing city email accounts for board and
Commission Members
There was a discussion regarding the disclosure of personal email and phone text
messages, and the need to establish city email accounts for all seated Board,
Commission and Committee Members.
City Clerk Freels explained that she had recently requested that the Information
Technology Division look into the possibility of providing email accounts for all policy
bodies.
City Administrator Haglund stated that it was technically possible, but there was a cost
to support the licensing and spam filtering for the additional accounts.
Commissioner Glines spoke on the Gavilan College Board email accounts.
Acting City Attorney Faber spoke on the potential work involved with a request for public
records from a personal account and the work in identifying the public and personal
email messages, and discussed the meta-data associated with deleted emails and the
subpoena of back-up takes during corporate litigation.
Mayor Gage and Commissioner Bracco spoke on forwarding their city email to personal
devices.
III. CONSENT CALENDAR
A. Approval of the Minutes of February 28, 2013
Motion on Item III.A.
Motion was made by Commissioner Bracco, seconded by Commissioner Glines
and passed unanimously to approve the minutes.
IV. UNFINISHED
There were no unfinished business items.
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V. NEW BUSINESS
A. Quarterly Review of Public Records Requests Per Gilroy Code Section 17A.35
(c)
City Administrator Haglund explained that the Police Department had sent their portion
of the report in late after the 72 hour publication deadline due to technical issues in
compiling the data, and the Commission was being asked to receive the late report.
Chairperson Woodward explained that the Open Government Ordinance addressed an
issue that took place in many jurisdictions of late staff generated meeting material and
the ordinance required that the policy body vote to accept the late material.
Acting City Attorney Faber explained that the majority of the Commission had to
determine that there was good cause that the material was being presented late and
could be received in late. He explained that from a legal standpoint the reason for the
late material was sufficient.
Motion to accept late material
Motion was made by Commissioner Glines, seconded by Commissioner Esposito
and passed unanimously to accept the late material.
Motion on Item VI.A.
Motion was made by Commissioner Bracco, seconded by Commissioner Glines
and passed unanimously to accept the report.
VI. CITY ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORTS
There was no report.
VII. CITY ATTORNEY'S REPORTS
There was no report.
VIII. CITY CLERK’S REPORTS
City Clerk Freels spoke on the ongoing Open Government Ordinance training efforts
explaining that ½ of the staff and commission members required to take the training
had completed it for the year. She then went on to describe the pending amendments
to the city’s records retention policy, explaining that it wa s planned to be presented to
the Commission in the fall.
Chairperson Woodward spoke on updating the Open Government Ordinance training
video asking if an updated version could be provided.
City Clerk Freels explained that the training itself was to be conducted by the City
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Attorney’s office.
City Administrator Haglund spoke on creating a training video in short vignettes as had
been done with other public information pieces.
Chairperson Woodward agreed that the training needed to be updated, and suggested
that it not be fully revamped until his proposed amendments to the existing ordinance
were presented at the next meeting. He then asked for comments from the Department
Heads on any cumbersome or duplicative pieces of the ordinance .
Commissioner Foley asked if there were designated people to respond to requests for
information. He then spoke on the concept of having one designated person to become
an expert on departmental matters.
City Administrator Haglund stated that each department had specific staff to respond to
questions, and records requests were sent to the departmental staff who could best
respond. He then stated that the volume of records requests looked to be manageable
as records of the city were mostly decentralized.
Chairperson Woodward stated that designating one person could be done without
amending the ordinance.
City Clerk Freels explained that the ordinance required that there be designated people
by department to respond to records. She then explained that the listing was in the City
Hall lobby as well as on the Open Government Commission website.
Commissioner Esposito explained that the city may be at risk if only one person were
designated to respond if the person was not able to keep up with all of the unique
systems of the city.
Commissioner Foley asked if there were any public complaints with regards to the
response times in the ordinance.
City Clerk Freels explained that most often people were complimentary because of the
quicker response time.
Commissioner Glines spoke on the time references in the video.
City Administrator Haglund spoke on response time for records requests and extension
of response time. He then spoke on the turnaround time and Department Head i nput on
the impacts of the ordinance.
IX. REPORTS OF COMMISSION MEMBERS
Chairperson Woodward explained that he was working on amendments to the
ordinance including sections that had not been adopted but had been proposed in the
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first version, and he would bring them to the Commission at the next meeting.
X. FUTURE COMMISSION INITIATED AGENDA ITEMS – SCHEDULE NEXT
QUARTERLY MEETING
Chairperson Woodward suggested that the feasibility of creating email accounts for
policy body members be agendized at the next meeting.
The Commissioners agreed.
Commissioner Foley asked if Department Head suggestions would be provided at the
next meeting.
City Administrator Haglund explained that he would reach out to the Department Heads
for their input.
Commissioner Glines asked that the “whys” to the areas not previously adopted in the
ordinance be identified.
Commissioner Foley asked that the City Attorney provide an update on the San Jose
email public records act court case.
There was a discussion of recent court rulings on similar cases.
The Commissioner scheduled the next meeting date as September 3, 2013 at 6:00
p.m.
XI. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 6:42 p.m.
/s/
SHAWNA FREELS, MMC
City Clerk
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