Board attorney says written legal advice requires president or board vote; members debate sunshine-law process

At the Oct. 28 meeting of the Little Miami Local School District Board of Education, board attorney Bill Deters told the board he typically will provide written legal advice only when the request comes from the board president or when the board votes to authorize it.

"The client is actually the board of education, and the communications that legal counsel gives to the board are attorney‑client privilege documents," Deters said, explaining why he is reluctant to memorialize advice in writing on an individual board member’s request. "If once that is in writing, then it becomes very easy for someone to breach that privilege without the board choosing to breach it as a board."

Board member Bill Wallace pressed for a policy change that would allow any individual board member to ask the attorney for a written opinion. Wallace said he sought a written statement about whether a past sequence of phone calls about a volunteer approval and a potential sunshine‑law question met the definition of deliberation. "Can I have that in writing?" Wallace asked during the discussion.

Deters described the district’s current practical procedure: the attorney will typically provide written opinions when the board president requests them or when the board votes to ask for a written opinion. "If the board president refused to approve it, then if you got a majority vote, then that could happen as well," Deters said.

Other board members cautioned that creating a policy allowing any individual member to require written advice could conflict with state law or existing practice. One member noted legal limits on who may speak for a board and said only the president can make certain requests on behalf of the entire board without a vote.

The exchange also touched on a related transparency issue: whether recorded board videos can be edited before posting. A district representative said staff had considered "bleeping" vulgar language in a posted video to avoid broadcasting profanity, rather than removing the segment entirely. "We did think not editing, but bleeping where that vulgar language was," the representative said during the minutes discussion.

The board did not adopt a new policy on written legal opinions at the meeting. The discussion concluded with multiple members saying they would consider whether to propose a formal policy change through the board’s normal procedures.

What happens next: No formal motion to change the practice for written legal opinions passed during the meeting; any change would require a future policy proposal or a board vote to direct the attorney to produce written opinions on specified requests.