Blog of law articles

From the Noblesville Ledger:

The Cicero Town Council violated Indiana's Open Door Law by interviewing engineering firms in closed-door sessions, according to town attorney John Culp.

Steve Key, legal counsel for the Hoosier State Press Association, agreed. "That should not have been done in an executive session. They were wrong."

The Open Door Law, he explained, was written so the public's business is conducted in the open, allowing anyone interested to see what decision is made and for what reasons it was made.

The five-member town council held closed-door sessions, also called executive sessions, on Jan. 24 and Feb. 6 to interview firms interested in handling engineer- ing projects on a contractual basis.

The Open Door Law does allow a governing body to receive information about and interview prospective employees in closed-door sessions. However, the attorney general said in 1997 that contractors are not employees so interviews and information-gathering sessions about them must be done at a public session.

A later report from the same paper shows the importance of legal research:

Town attorney John Culp is blaming himself for Cicero Town Council violating Indiana's Open Door Law by interviewing engineering firms in two closed-door sessions.

"I thought it was alright to go ahead and interview in executive sessions," Culp told the board at its meeting Tuesday night.

The five-member council held closed-door sessions, also called executive sessions, on Jan. 24 and Feb. 6 to interview firms interested in handling engineering projects on a contractual basis. Indiana's Open Door law allows executive sessions to interview prospective employees. Contractors, however, are not considered employees.

Culp said the council asked in advance if executive sessions would be legal, but when the attorney became ill he was unable to research the answer.

actually, i am quite impressed by this Steve Culp's willingness to take responsibility for Cicero's actions.