Paper Files Complaint Over Pay Cuts
Posted By J.T. on July 28, 2009
The Belton Star-Herald has filed a complaint with Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster due to the manner in which the Peculiar Board of Alderman voted for a pay cut for city employees.
During an executive session on July 21 the Board of Alderman discussed the wage issue then entered the public meeting to vote. Alderman Stark made a motion to instruct the City Administrator to reduce salaries of all City Staff by 10% across the board. The motion was seconded by Alderman Antonides and passed by a vote of 6 - 0.
The article in the Star-Herald alleges this was a violation of the Sunshine Law, quoting Jean Maneke, attorney for the Missouri Press Association and a Sunshine Law expert.
Such matters, Maneke said, are not closed session issues. Personnel matters regarding a group of employees, including pay cuts, are to be discussed in open meeting.
“There was a case involving the North Kansas City School District years and years and years ago,” Maneke said. “And the courts said if you’re talking about groups of employees where you’re not talking about individual employees, then you can’t do that in closed session. It needs to be done in open session.”
“The pay cut was voted on outside of exec. session and was considered to be a more palatable option than the elimination of certain city jobs,” said Mayor Pro Tem Holly Stark.
City Attorney Reid F. Holbrook has issued a press release. You can view the whole thing HERE:
On Tuesday the Board of Aldermen and Senior Staff of the City went into a closed session pursuant to RSMO 610.021(3) for one hour to discuss a revenue shortfall and potential solutions to prevent a reduction in City Services. One of the solutions considered was a reduction in force. Five individual employees were discussed and whether their employment should be terminated. Missouri law expressly authorizes the Peculiar Board of Aldermen to go into closed session to discuss specific employees in order to protect their individual privacy. Since this was a work session, no vote was taken.
The statute in question, RSMO 610.021 states:
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 shall be made available with a record of how each member voted to the public within seventy-two 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-hour period before such decision is made available to the public. As used in this subdivision, the term “personal information” means information relating to the performance or merit of individual employees;
The Peculiar Board of Alderman will be meeting tonight at 6:30pm to discuss ways to implement the wage cuts. “It will be across the board including myself and the BOA,” said Mayor Ernest Jungmeyer. ” We are leaning towards a reduction in hours worked to achieve this. The possibility also exists for staff changes.”
Why does the Star Herald complain that some politicians are actually giving themselves pay cuts instead of pay raises? The vote was done publicly, so why do they insist that the Sunshine Law was violated?