Board hears legal guidance on public meetings, records and gifts at annual ethics training

At an annual ethics training for the Portland SD 1J Board of Education, attorney Mike Porter of Miller Nash reviewed Oregon rules for public meetings, public records and ethics, emphasizing how routine communications and informal practices can trigger legal violations.

Porter, who led the session that the district requires board members and senior staff to complete, told board members: "The definition of a meeting is a convening of a governing body, of a public body, for which a quorum is required to make a decision or deliberate toward a decision on any matter." He said that when a quorum of board members engages in sequential or electronic communications that amount to deliberation outside a public meeting, the district risks violating state law.

The training singled out "serial electronic written communication" as a common source of trouble. Porter summarized guidance from the Oregon Ethics Commission: "Prohibited serial communications occur when the governing body, outside of a public meeting, uses serial electronic…