From the Idaho Mountain Express
The Sun Valley City Council violated Idaho’s open-meetings law at a meeting Oct. 5 by authorizing changes to a contract in executive session, according to City Attorney Adam King.
Another meeting will be held Friday, Oct. 16, at 4 p.m. so the council can acknowledge the violation and void the motion that authorized the contract changes. King told the council in an email last week that under state law, it had two weeks to fix the violation.
The Oct. 5 meeting was contentious, and marked by sharp words exchanged between Mayor Dewayne Briscoe and the City Council. Their disagreements related to payments that council members Keith Saks, Jane Conard and Michelle Griffith received to purchase their own health plans, outside the city’s group plan.
Saks called the violation “inadvertent,” and easily fixed by acknowledging it at Friday’s meeting and voiding the motion.
“This was an oversight,” he said. “We’ll remedy it the way the statute says to remedy it.”
The city’s insurance carrier, Regence BlueShield of Idaho, has notified the city of its intent to cancel the plan because the payments conflict with the plan’s underwriting assumptions. But that leaves a 90-day window for the city to rectify the situation.
After getting an opinion from outside law firm Hall Render, Saks, Griffith and Conard stopped the payments. They said they believed that was sufficient at the Oct. 5 meeting.
But based on conversations she had with Regence, City Treasurer Angela Orr said the company also wanted the city to go one step further and repeal Ordinance 475, passed in August, which affirmed the system of payments.
The practice dates to 2007, but came into question earlier this year because of recently enacted federal guidelines that were part of the Affordable Care Act’s implementation.
“This was nothing this council created,” Saks said.
According to Briscoe, the opinion from Hall Render stated that the practice is in conflict with the federal law.
At the Oct. 5 meeting, Briscoe had included repealing Ordinance 475 on the agenda. But after tensions boiled over at one point, Briscoe recused himself before the council addressed that item.
He did not return, and Saks, the council president, took over running the meeting. Griffith also left to attend a Ketchum City Council meeting that was happening at the same time.
Saks, Conard and Councilman Peter Hendricks addressed more routine city business such as finding an architect to renovate the Elkhorn Fire Station, among other issues, until Griffith returned shortly after 7 p.m. About a half hour later, the council took up the item related to Ordinance 475. Conard said she felt the item had been placed on the agenda prematurely, and wanted to discuss the matter in executive session.
Several council members felt it was necessary to consult with Hall Render further, and to get the law firm to reach out to Regence’s legal department to determine what needs to be done to bring the city into compliance.
Griffith also said she felt it necessary to discuss that in executive session. Before doing so, the council heard a briefing from Community Development Director Jae Hill on efforts to address unpermitted encroachment into city rights of way.
Shortly after 8 p.m., the council voted 4-0 to enter executive session, and recording of the meeting ceased.
That’s when “procedural irregularities” occurred, King wrote in the email.
After the vote to go into executive session, the council backtracked and “realized that it was appropriate to first amend the contract with Hall Render.” The council wanted to add $1,000 to the contract to cover any additional work. The original contract was capped at $3,000.
The recording was turned back on, and after short discussion, the change was approved, King wrote. Saks then said the council was back in executive session, which lasted about an hour. No other action was taken, aside from adjourning the meeting.
King wrote that the “Hall Render motion was effectively made while the City Council was in executive session. After the motion to enter executive session, there was no talk of exiting executive session before the Hall Render motion.”
Saks said King, the council and city staff present weren’t aware of the violation. He said King reviewed the situation after Briscoe called to notify him, and his email went out to the council members Oct. 8.
Under Idaho’s open meeting law, the council was not permitted to take that action in executive session, King wrote.
To fix the situation, King wrote, the council will have to acknowledge the violation, void the motion and then take up the Hall Render contract again.
The agenda will also include repealing Ordinance 475.
From the Idaho Mountain Express