City attorney briefs North St. Paul council on open-meeting, data-practice and conflict rules

City attorney Jack Brooksbank of the law firm Campbell Knutson told Mayor Monge and council members at a Jan. 7 workshop that public decisions and the underlying government data must generally be handled in public and on official channels.

Brooksbank said the Open Meeting Law defines a “meeting” broadly and that any quorum — three council members — discussing city business in a way that furthers a decision can trigger noticing requirements. He told the council, “public decisions should be made in public,” and warned that serial communications (for example, one council member emailing another and that second member emailing a third) can amount to an unnoted meeting.

The attorney said the Data Practices Act likewise treats government records broadly: emails or text messages about city business, even when sent from personal devices, can be public records subject to disclosure. “If it is an official email, assume that it will be read by the entire public,” Brooksbank said, and recommended using official city email for city business and forwarding any citizen messages received on a personal account to an official address.

Why this matters: Open-meeting and…