Minnesota’s local officials try to balance public health and open government
More may depend on video-conference public hearings
Dozens of cities and counties across the state have declared emergencies in order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. These new measures include the closing of public buildings such as libraries and restricting in-person access to many services. And some governments are starting to hold meetings remotely using teleconferencing systems or video chat software.
On Wednesday, several members of the St. Paul City Council took their laptops out of the council chambers and down the hall to a conference room.
Council President Amy Brendmoen stayed in chambers, but was able to see her colleagues Rebecca Noecker and Jane Prince on her computer screen.
"I can see Rebecca and Jane. Can you hear me? Hi," Brendmoen waved at her screen.
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After tangling with some audio and video glitches the seven council members were able to see and speak to each other via video conferencing.
The day before they learned the new system, the City Council voted to ratify Mayor Melvin Carter’s emergency declaration. St. Paul is one of dozens of municipalities around the state to pass measures which, among other things, temporarily close down some public buildings in an attempt to limit the spread of coronavirus.
Council member Chris Tolbert also sits on the Met Council's transit advisory board. He said the board held a remote meeting and it went smoothly. And Tolbert said it's smart for the council to hold future meetings from a distance as well.
"This would be a very prudent way for us to move. We're in the midst of a pandemic where the only way we can slow it is, quite frankly, not being close to each other," said Tolbert.
Under the state's open meeting law, elected bodies can meet remotely by phone or video conference. During such meetings, every vote has to be conducted by roll call, all members must be able to hear each other and any testimony. And if there's a regular meeting location that's open to the public, citizens must also be able to hear all discussion and testimony.
Stacie Christensen, director of the Minnesota Department of Administration's data practices division, said unlike in some other states, municipalities here may restrict some access to public meetings in the midst of a health emergency.
"Minnesota was positioned to have an actual law on the books to deal with these situations,” she said. “We haven't used it very often if at all. But at least we have that legal guidance."
Christensen said her office has fielded a lot of questions from local public officials. She says many are concerned about how they can keep meetings open to the public while they limit physical access to government buildings.
Several cities report they've been testing conferencing systems, according to the League of Minnesota Cities. As with St. Paul, officials in other local governments are trying to find a way to reduce the spread of the virus but also maintain some public access to services.
Amber Eisenschenk, research manager for the League, said the extent of emergency declarations vary from government to government.
“The most common things are granting more powers to staff to make purchases, take other emergency action,” said Eisenschenk. “Sometimes, the declaration itself puts into place other policies or emergency preparedness plans or continuity of operations. Everybody calls it a little something different.”
In each case, said Eisenschenk, a city mayor or manager or county board chair makes the declaration, which goes into effect immediately. That triggers a process in which elected officials then have 72 hours to ratify those declarations or vote them down.
Minneapolis held a remote meeting Thursday to ratify the emergency declaration made by Mayor Jacob Frey earlier this week. The council didn’t add an end date to the state of emergency. However, according to the city clerk, the council can vote to end it at any time.
As local governments close the doors to public buildings and shut down public facing services, longtime open government advocate Rich Neumeister sees several potential pitfalls.
While he doesn’t have a problem with the government taking steps to protect the health of its citizens, Neumeister does worry that some of the temporary restrictions to people's access to government will become permanent.
"In any time of crisis, from my perspective, an institution or government will take advantage of that," he said.
For example, in the wake of the coronavirus crisis governments have temporarily restricted some services to online or telephone instead of in-person, which staff may find easier to handle. Then after the declaration is over they may think, “Let’s not roll back that policy,” he said. “Let’s just keep that policy.”
Neumeister also is concerned that as governments become more closed to the public, they will become more secret. He said he understands things are not business as usual right now. But Neumeister said the public deserves to know what’s going on.
“And the only way to get to that is after things come back to a little bit of normalcy, that the media and the public are able to ask the government officials for any and all government data,” said Neumeister.