I need you by me, Beside me, to guide me, To hold me, to scold me ….

I took a call this week from a newspaper that was talking to members of a public body about a proposed closed meeting.  They had an interesting issue to ponder.  The members of the body had been working on a proposal request.  They met when they first put it together, and now it was almost done.  The body’s members wanted to have one final closed meeting to get a final vote on the proposal request.  But they didn’t want to have to call a meeting to do it.  Could they do it by conference call in some fashion, the caller asked?

Now, to be honest, I get a little nervous when I get calls like this.  My job is to talk with members of the Missouri Press Association about sunshine law questions THEY have, not to be in a position where I suspect I am giving legal advice to a public body.  There are municipal attorneys all over the state to do that.  They don’t need me.  But still, the newspaper member had a right to call and to ask the question, so I attempted to answer it for him.

And, frankly, it wasn’t that hard.  This was a question with an easy answer, but probably not one that was what the body wanted to hear.  Sure, a public body may meet in an electronic manner — that’s guaranteed in the sunshine law language.  The term “public meeting” by definition includes gatherings held by communication equipment, including conference call, video coferencing or similar mechanisms.

But the key is that this was going to be a CLOSED meeting, not an open meeting.  Because all votes in closed meetings must be by roll-call vote (Section 610.015).  And while, if there is an emergency matter, there may be votes in a closed meeting taken, the votes of those who are not physically present may only be counted if there IS an emergency and if there is a quorum of the body physically present (also in Section 610.015).  If fewer than a quorum are present and/or if there is NOT an emergency of the public body, then the votes of those not physically present cannot be counted.  In short, if you are just holding an electronic meeting for convenience and you want to vote, you are out of luck.

Nobody ever said doing this “public service” thing was easy.  Going to meetings is a way of life for those folks.  And voting is a key part of that activity.  So be there, or be square.  But just be there.