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05/30/2013 Open Government Commission Regular Meeting Adopted 09/09/2013 Open Government Commission Meeting Minutes 5-30-2013 -1- 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. Open Government Commission Meeting Minutes 5-30-2013 -2- 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. Open Government Commission Meeting Minutes 5-30-2013 -3- 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 Open Government Commission Meeting Minutes 5-30-2013 -4- 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 Open Government Commission Meeting Minutes 5-30-2013 -5- 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 Open Government Commission Meeting Minutes 5-30-2013 -6-