QUESTION 1. - SECRET BALLOT
CAN A PUBLIC BODY VOTE ON MATTERS BY SECRET BALLOT?
No. Obviously, the use of a secret ballot process would prevent the public from knowing a very important element of government action and the Attorney General has so opined. Opinion No. 5262 issued January 31, 1978 states that it is the opinion of the Attorney General that a "voting procedure at a public meeting which prevents citizens from knowing how members of a public body have voted is prohibited by the Open Meetings Act." As the Attorney General noted, the Open Meetings Act requires that all decisions of a public body must be made at an open meeting and the term decision is defined to include voting. Absent a special statutory provision authorizing a secret ballot, all public decisions must be a vote which the public may witness.
QUESTION 2. - VOTES ON PSEUDONYMS
CAN A SCHOOL DISTRICT HIDE THE IDENTITY OF A STUDENT BEING DISCIPLINED BY USING A STUDENT NUMBER OR OTHER MEANS OF IDENTIFICATION WHICH ALLOWS THE SCHOOL BOARD TO IDENTIFY THE STUDENT BUT PREVENTS THE PUBLIC FROM KNOWING THE IDENTITY OF THE STUDENT DISCIPLINED?
Just as the law does not allow secret ballots, it does not allow the use of subterfuge to hide the identity of persons about whom a public body is making decisions. In the case of Palladium Publishing Company v. River Valley School District the Court of Appeals held that the Open Meetings Act required the naming of a suspended or expelled student at the school board meeting. The Board had attempted to expel or otherwise discipline students by identifying the student only by their student identification number. The Court, in an obviously correct decision, said this was not legal under the OMA.
QUESTION 3. - ROLL CALL VOTES
WHEN MUST A PUBLIC BODY TAKE A ROLL CALL VOTE TO GO INTO CLOSED SESSION?
Although there are eight different circumstances which permit the holding of a closed session of a public body under the Open Meetings Act, only three of those circumstances require the public body to take a roll call vote and obtain a 2/3 approval of the closure. A fourth circumstance applies specifically to partisan caucuses of the legislature. In addition to holding a roll call vote, the roll call vote and the purpose or purposes for calling the closed session shall be entered into the minutes. See Section 7 of the OMA. The three circumstances which require a roll call vote are: to consider periodic personnel evaluations, to consider discipline of a student, and to discuss strategy with regard to and negotiation sessions in connection with the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement. In each of these three circumstances the person or party involved must request the closed session. That is to say the employee, the student or one of the negotiating parties must request the closed session.
However, public bodies should be encouraged to take a roll call vote and include the vote and the purpose of the closed session in their minutes, as to all closed sessions as a matter of good business practices. Newspapers should point out that as the official record of the meeting, the minutes offer the opportunity for the public body to make an official record that there was a proper reason for the closed session and that proper procedures were used to go into closed session.