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ZBA counsel reviews FOIA, site-visit limits and conflict-of-interest guidance
Summary
The assistant city attorney reminded board members they must avoid creating record gaps, warned against email "reply all" that could constitute a quorum under open meetings rules, encouraged separate board email addresses for FOIA protection, and outlined recusal and site-visit practices.
Counsel reviewed obligations under FOIA and the Open Meetings Act and advised the ZBA on best practices for site visits and conflicts of interest.
He recommended that members consider a separate email address for board business to limit personal-account FOIA exposure, cautioned against "reply all" that can create the appearance of a meeting under the Open Meetings Act, and said site visits should be limited to observations from public rights-of-way. Counsel urged members to disclose potential conflicts promptly and recommended recusal where an appearance of impropriety exists to preserve confidence in decisions.
The trainer noted that if a member relies on their own site-visit observations to make factual findings, they should disclose those observations during deliberation so all members have the same evidence on the record.
