EVANSTON — At the city council work session on March 25, Evanston City Attorney Mark Harris conducted a training for council members on Wyoming’s Open Meetings Act. At the end of the hour-long training, some council members said they were still confused as to a clear definition of what “sequential communication” is and what constitutes a violation of the act.

Harris conducted the training by reading the Wyoming Open Meetings Act and giving examples, which still led to confusion.

“Definition of a meeting is when members meet for the purpose of taking action — official business, to pass a resolution or motion,” Harris explained. “The meeting can be in-person, by telephone or any other form of communication that occurs between councilors. However, in this case, just because no action was taken doesn’t mean it wasn’t a meeting. It was called for an express purpose.”

Councilmembers Jen Hegeman, Jesse Lind and Mike Sellers — three of the four council members Harris found to be in violation of the OMA (Tim Lynch was also involved but is no longer on the council) — argued with Harris and the conversation became heated.

In responding to Harris, Hegeman insisted that perspective and a liberal interpretation plays a huge part in interpretating what constitutes an open meeting.

Harris said, “A liberal interpretation is applied by the courts.”

Lind asked, “How can we make the rules work for us?”

The three council members were frustrated as they still maintained they did not violate the act and were following the advice of the WAM (Wyoming Association of Municipalities) attorney.

“The definition of sequential communication is so gray, it is almost opaque,” Hegeman said to Harris, “Also, the taxpayers pay you to represent all of us on the council as your clients.”

Harris said he represents the city as a whole, not each council member individually but, if they have a question about a rule, they should ask him.

Sellers asked Harris, “Who defines the intent of the communication?”

Harris did not respond directly to Sellers’ question but began describing the different types of meetings that have to be open to the public. Those include special meetings in which the public attends but is not allowed to speak without the authority’s permission. These meetings require an eight-hour notice. It also includes emergency meetings, which involve concern of an immediate issue and action is taken within 48 hours, along with regular meetings of the city council. 

Minutes for the above meetings are required to be taken and must be made available to the public. All minutes taken where an action is taken must be published for the public.

Executive sessions are private meetings called for in a public meeting and must be approved by two-thirds of the council. The public is not allowed to attend executive sessions. Minutes must be kept to be available for action to be taken in a regular meeting, but are not available to the public.

Lind asked for a definition of an action.

“Action means when all agree a decision is made, it doesn’t require a vote,” Harris said.

Lind said, “No action was taken regarding the situation you have charged us with.”

Harris said, “Deliberation to take action is a violation.”

Lind said he was confused on the issue and “action” needed to be more clearly defined.

Harris said that the four council members were making a collective decision and that was a violation.

“You were all saying the same thing,” Mayor Kent Williams added.

This dialogue led to a heated exchange between Hegeman and Harris, with Hegeman saying Harris should be representing each council member and not taking legal action against them, and Harris saying again that he doesn’t represent each individual on the council.

The meeting closed with council members saying they were confused and needed more clarification on the subject of sequential communication and definition of an action.

Regular business that took place earlier in the work session included a report from Keart Hartley, an engineer working with Brent Sanders of Crest LLC, who provided options for correcting the recreation center hillside erosion and drainage problems.

Hartley said they could build a small retaining wall behind the existing wall and suggested different options of building materials. He suggested that the space between the two retaining walls could be xeriscaped or filled in with rock for drainage.

They will also cut the existing retaining wall down to 8 feet high and cap it. Hartley said that wall is much safer now since they removed the soil behind it and lessened the pressure causing it to lean.

“The electrical line and the Century Link lines need to be relocated,” Hartley said. “The city is responsible for the excavation and Rocky Mountain Power is responsible for moving the line, conduit, etc. Century Link will relocate and reline their service line. The line goes diagonal across the parking lot and we think across the street but we are investigating that. We are talking to the different agencies and will get back to you on that.”

Next on the agenda was Tim and Keri Tiller, owners of Deru’s Glass Works, who told the council they are interested in purchasing the city parking lot next to their business, as they want to expand. They said they would like to build an enclosed building to add a larger showroom and storage space. The company currently has 13 employees and, with the expansion, Tiller said they plan to increase that significantly, to between 30 and 45 employees.

Lind, Sellers and Hegeman said they were concerned about the other local businesses that use that parking lot. If it is not available, then those employees would have to use parking on Main Street, which would limit parking for customers.

“This could be problematic, and we need to investigate as to how this would affect other businesses,” Mayor Williams said. “We want to help you without hurting everyone else. There may be other options for buildings or property somewhere else. City-owned property is cumbersome and takes time to figure out.”

Cody Moore with Evanston Youth Baseball spoke to the council next. He said the organization is hoping to build an indoor training facility for baseball and have been looking at city property located at the park off Tomahawk and Kachina Drive.

“We are in the process of writing a grant to seek funding for this building,” Moore said. “We are hoping we can come to an agreement with the city on either a lease or a lease with option to buy for this location.”

The council members all supported the idea of an indoor training facility and said they would look at what is available and all the options.

Williams said again, as with Tiller, the city needs time to review the selling of land, infrastructure, zoning and any possible restrictions.

“It’s a great idea; we need to figure out the best way to do this,” Williams said. “We need to see if there are any restrictions on that land. We can let you know what we find out and how to go about this.”