The Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector’s Office released a comprehensive audit of the Circuit Engineering District No. 7 last month.
This is the 13th of a series of stories published by the Weatherford Daily News regarding the findings of the audit.
This story highlights the issue of CED7’s violation of the Open Meeting Act.
CED No. 7 includes Beckham, Blaine, Custer, Dewey, Ellis, Greer, Harmon, Jackson, Kiowa, Roger Mills, Tillman and Washita counties.
The board consists of a county commissioner from each of the 11 counties.
At issue — Open Meeting Act violations
The audit found CED7 and the County Energy District Authority did not comply with some provisions of the State of Oklahoma’s Open Meeting Act.
First, the minutes of the October 22, 2013, authority board meeting reflect the board discussed, in executive session, the possible hire of Crowe and Dunlevy as intellectual-property attorneys. The motion carried with a full vote of the board. The minutes of the July 28, 2015, CED7 meeting reflect the board discussed, in executive session, the restructuring of a consultant agreement with Jerry Dean.
Public bodies are not allowed to discuss contracts with independent contractors in an executive session. Both the contract with the law firm and the contract with the consultant are not authorized for discussion in executive session. According to 2005 OK AG 29:
Discussing and awarding a contract for professional services when the recipient will be an independent contractor, rather than a public officer or employee of the public body, is not a proper subject for an executive session.
Second, the minutes of the June 25, 2019, CED meeting reflect the board, in executive session, discussed “employee evaluations and salary changes.” The minutes specifically said “The board discussed these items and no other items.” However, the board subsequently voted to promote its interim operations manager to executive director. This action would not be covered under “employee evaluations and salary changes.”
According to 25 O.S. § 311(B)(2) of the Open Records Act:
If a public body proposes to conduct an executive session, the agenda shall:
a. contain sufficient information for the public to ascertain that an executive session will be proposed,
b. identify the items of business and purposes of the executive session, and
c. state specifically the provision of Section 307 of this title authorizing the executive session.
Minutes of CED meetings have not recorded the vote of each board member regarding entering and exiting executive sessions. According to 25 O.S. § 305:
In all meetings of public bodies, the vote of each member must be publicly cast and recorded.