JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) - The top legal adviser in Joplin is fighting allegations that he violated the Missouri Sunshine Law by taking a telephone poll of City Council members on a settlement proposal in an ethics case involving a councilman.
City Attorney Peter Edwards contends that he’s able to call members of the City Council. But according to Jean Maneke, an attorney for the Missouri Press Association, there’s no provision in the Open Records Law regarding telephone polls.
Attorneys for Councilman Mike Woolston, who’s involved in the ethics case, provided Edwards with details of the proposed agreement. Edwards told the Joplin Globe (https://bit.ly/1Fj7ENQ ) that he didn’t consider the possibility that he was violating a law by making the calls on Sunday and he only wanted to inform council members of the settlement offer ahead of a hearing on Monday.
“The intent was not to avoid the Sunshine Law but to deal with the situation at hand,” Edwards said. “When I look back at it now, I think it could have been handled differently. An alternative would have been to call council members and see if there was a time to have a meeting before the hearing.”
Edwards posted a notice on Monday that he had polled council members over the phone and tallied a 5-3 vote to authorize the agreement.
The formal vote will be taken at the council’s regular meeting on Monday, Edwards said, adding that he plans to correct the error he made by polling council members.
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Information from: The Joplin (Mo.) Globe, https://www.joplinglobe.com
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