Delaware County district attorney refuses to prosecute Open Meeting Act violations in Bernice

The Bernice Board of Trustees won't face criminal charges over several Open Meeting Act violations detailed by a state audit in April, Delaware County District Attorney Eddie Wyant's office said last week.
 
"Basically, after we have looked at what we've got here, it appears that the things that they did were under the advice of their counsel, and that in our opinion makes it difficult to find that it was a willful violation," Wyant's first assistant told the Tulsa World
 
"We don't necessarily agree with their counsel, but it certainly mitigates against it being a willful violation," said Ben Loring.
 
But that excuse ignores a long line of contrary opinions by Oklahoma courts.
 
In 2009, the Court of Civil Appeals said acting on the advice of an attorney did not excuse a public body's violation of the Open Meeting Act. (Okmulgee Co. Rural Water Dist. No. 2 v. Beggs Pub. Works Auth., 2009 OK CIV APP 51)
 
The court said the violation by the Beggs Public Works Authority, "although based on advice of counsel, constitutes a 'willful,' 'conscious' violation of the OMA 'by those who know, or should know the requirements of the Act.'" (Id. ¶ 18)
 
The court quoted from a 1984 ruling in which the Oklahoma Supreme Court said, "Willfulness does not require a showing of bad faith, malice, or wantonness, but rather, encompasses conscious, purposeful violations of the law or blatant or deliberate disregard of the law by those who know, or should know the requirements of the Act." (Rogers v. Excise Bd. of Greer County, 1984 OK 95,¶ 14, 701 P.2d 754, 761)
 
That reasoning was adopted from a 1981 Court of Civil Appeals decision in which the lower court said that even a vote taken in "good faith" could be found to be a willful violation. (Matter of Order Declaring Annexation, 1981 OK CIV APP 57, ¶¶ 24-25)
 
"If willful is narrowly interpreted, if actions taken in violation of the Act could not be set aside unless done in bad faith, maliciously, obstinately, with a premeditated evil design and intent to do wrong, then the public would be left helpless to enforce the Act most of the time and public bodies could go merrily along, in good faith, ignoring the Act," the Court of Civil Appeals explained. (Id. at ¶ 26)
 
"While we discern no bad faith, malice, or wantonness, and while the officials may not have consciously broken the law, we are well-convinced that they knew or should have known the Act's requirements and blatantly or deliberately disregarded the law," the court concluded in that case. (Id. at ¶ 30)
 
So should the Bernice Board of Trustees have known the law? In at least one instance, they were warned by a resident that an executive session would be illegal under the particular circumstances. But they did it anyway.
 
Keep in mind, too, that since 2005, all municipal officials elected for the first time must undergo training that includes the Open Meeting Act's requirements and prohibitions. (OKLA. STAT. tit. 11, § 8-114(A))
 
Violating the Open Meeting Act is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $500 fine and one year in the county jail.
 
As a penal statute, the Open Meeting Act must be strictly construed, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals said in 1992.
 
"Any cause of action based upon such a statute must be clear and without a doubt," the court said. "Statutes which create and provide penalties for criminal offenders must be sufficiently explicit so persons of common intelligence may understand their provisions and so that their meaning does not require speculation," the court said. (State v Patton, 1992 OK CR 57, ¶ 3)
 
In Bernice, the state auditor's office found instances between July 1, 2008, and June 30, 2011, in which the town trustees had unquestionably violated the Open Meeting Act by:

• Discussing contracts of independent contractors in executive session;
• Not taking minutes of executive sessions;
• Not listing the statutory authorization for executive sessions or listing the wrong one;
• Not including the names or unique titles of employees to be discussed in executive sessions as well as not identifying the "specific purposes of the sessions – whether employment, hiring, appointment, promotion, demotion, disciplining, or resignation";
• Voting in an executive session; and
• Discussing the creation of a job, rather than hiring a specific person, in executive sessions. (A violation that was pointed out on this blog last April.)

These aren't violations of new requirements or prohibitions under the Open Meeting Act. And, as the audit pointed out, the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals has said:

The Open Meeting Act is not obscure or incomprehensible. On the contrary, anyone with ten minutes to spare can read the whole thing and understand virtually every word. Each member of a covered public body should have taken that ten minutes [sic]. Lack of familiarity is no excuse. (Matter of Order Declaring Annexation, 1981 OK CIV APP 57, ¶18 )

But in Delaware County, public officials' ignorance of the Open Meeting Act is being excused.
 
Loring also gave one more reason why Bernice trustees wouldn't be prosecuted for robbing the public of their right to an open government: It did not appear that any of the trustees personally benefited from the violations described in the audit.
 
"Our attitude would be a whole lot different if there is personal gain from it," Loring told the Tulsa World.
 
When did that become a requirement for prosecution of an Open Meeting Act violation?
 
Personal gain wasn't apparent, or mentioned, when the Muskogee County district attorney prosecuted Boynton town trustees in 2010 for Open Meeting Act violations.
 
The state Court of Criminal Appeals has said criminal intent need not be proved because the conduct is illegal by virtue of the Open Meeting Act. In other words, a crime exists because the statute deemed the conduct to be wrong. (Hillary v. State, 1981 OK CR 78, ¶ 5)
 
The Open Meeting Act also doesn't require prosecutors to prove injury to establish a prima facie case of a violation, the court said. (Id. ¶ 8)
 
Wyant's excuses for not prosecuting are frustrating for the public not only because they ignore the law but also because a Washington County judge has said Oklahomans may not sue to enforce the Open Meeting Act without having been specifically harmed by the government body's alleged violation.
 
The remedy for Oklahomans "who have no concern but that their government is working in the dark ... is a criminal prosecution for any willful violations," said Associate District Judge Russell Vaclaw said in November.
 
But Wyant's refusal to prosecute blatant violations underscores the need to create an independent state authority with the expertise and willingness to pursue violations. Oklahomans simply cannot rely on local district attorneys to consistently do the essential job of protecting an open government.
 
In 2008, the Court of Civil Appeals said: "The Act is designed to 'encourage and facilitate an informed citizenry's understanding of the governmental processes and governmental problems. … The Act serves to inform the citizenry of the governmental problems and processes by informing them of the business the government will be conducting." (Wilson v. City of Techumseh, 2008 OK CIV APP 84, ¶ 10)
 
However, that purpose is defeated when district attorneys shrug off violations of the Open Meeting Act.
 

 
Joey Senat, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
OSU School of Media & Strategic Communications
 
The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the commentators and do not necessarily represent the position of FOI Oklahoma Inc., its staff, or its board of directors. Differing interpretations of open government law and policy are welcome.