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Council warned about email quorums; Law Director urges caution and committee transparency
Summary
Councilwoman Jennifer Jansen cautioned members that email exchanges can unintentionally create a quorum and trigger open-meeting rules; Law Director Rieker reminded the body that committees are similarly governed and recommended limiting multilateral email deliberations.
Councilwoman Jennifer Jansen raised a procedural reminder at the March 24 work session that informal email exchanges among members can violate Ohio's open-meetings principles if a quorum is involved. "We have to make sure we do not have a quorum of council on the email," Jansen said, noting she has withheld replies to certain threads to avoid inadvertent deliberations.
Law Director Rieker reinforced the caution and extended it to committee work, explaining that a three-member committee exchanging views by email could meet the legal threshold for an open meeting if members are deliberating. Jansen and others suggested a single point-of-contact approach for questions and a regular standardized monthly report from departments to minimize the need for back-and-forth emails among a quorum of members.
