Bartlesville Open Meeting Act case sent back to district court
By LAURA SUMMERS World Correspondent on Jul 2, 2013, at 2:28 AM Updated on 7/02/13 at 8:51 AM
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BARTLESVILLE - A lawsuit alleging that the Bartlesville Redevelopment Trust Authority violated the state Open Meeting Act is headed back to a local court after a ruling by the state Court of Civil Appeals.
The appellate court in a recent decision reversed a November 2011 ruling by Associate District Judge Russell Vaclaw, who had determined that Joel Hurst and Sharon Rabin "failed to state a claim for which relief can be granted" when they sought relief for what they called a violation of the Open Meeting Act.
The appeals court opinion issued by Judge Jerry Goodman indicates that the district court erred in its ruling.
Rabin and Hurst filed the suit in October 2010 in Washington County District Court.
The issues involve an Aug. 11, 2010, meeting of the trust authority, which oversees downtown Bartlesville development. The agenda showed that an executive session was to be held to discuss "pending investigations, claims or actions affecting the BRTA."
But an email sent the day before the meeting by then-Downtown Development Director Pat Treadway to authority members and city officials states that "there is not an investigation" and that the wording was chosen by advising attorney Dan McMahan "to give you information which he believes you need to have for future projects."
Rabin and Hurst contend that the authority could not legally hold an executive session just to discuss future projects. They asked for the minutes and records of the executive session to be made public and for all actions the authority took as a result of the closed-door session to be declared invalid.
The appellate ruling seemed to side with Rabin and Hurst.
Goodman wrote that "making public the minutes of an improperly held executive session and invalidating actions taken at same does 'right the wrong' " but that "the logical remedy is to disclose the secret to the public."
Original Print Headline: Appellate judges send openness case back to Bartlesville court
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The Regents will consider architectural firms to provide construction of storm-hardened shelters in the housing area on the Norman campus.
