Kansas City Star Co. v. Shields, WD

• Decision Date: 16 May 1989
• Docket Number: No. WD,WD
• Citation: 771 S.W.2d 101
• Parties: 16 Media L. Rep. 1915 The KANSAS CITY STAR COMPANY, Respondent, v. Katheryn SHIELDS, Appellant. 40940.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 101

771 S.W.2d 101

16 Media L. Rep. 1915

The KANSAS CITY STAR COMPANY, Respondent, v. Katheryn SHIELDS, Appellant.

No. WD 40940.

Missouri Court of Appeals,

Western District.

May 16, 1989.

Philip F. Cardarella, Kansas City, for appellant.

W.H. Bates, Timothy K. McNamara, Jonathan R. Haden, Kansas City, for respondent.

William L. Webster, Atty. Gen., Deborah L. Ground, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for amicus curiae.

Before LOWENSTEIN, P.J., and NUGENT and FENNER, JJ.

LOWENSTEIN, Presiding Judge.

Facing a crisis involving a $15 million budget deficit and with the date for mandatory budget approval by the Kansas City Council fast approaching, the finance committee of the council met for lunch on April 14, 1988, in the back room of Fedora's Bar & Grill on the Country Club Plaza. Present were three of the four committee members--the chairman, the appellant and one other council member along with the city manager and the city budget officer. No notice of the meeting was given. A proposed budget was discussed, including evaluation of certain city expenditures. The respondent newspaper, the Kansas City Star Company, filed this suit against the three council members on the finance committee for violation of Missouri's "Sunshine" or "Open Meetings" law, which is contained in Sections 610.010--610.030, RSMo Supp.1987. All further references in this opinion will be to this law, which is embodied in Chapter 610 and which covers open meetings and records of public governmental bodies. As discussed in more detail infra, and as pertinent to this case, this law requires a city council committee, as a public governmental body, § 610.010(2), at any meeting during which public business is discussed, § 610.010(3), to give notice of the meeting to the media and to the public, § 610.020.1, at least twenty four hours in advance of the meeting, § 610.020.2, and the meeting must be held at a time and place "reasonably convenient to the public," § 610.020.3. The trial court's judgment was adverse to the three council members. Only council member Kathy Shields has appealed.

Many of the following facts, not all of which are designated by quotation marks, are taken from the extensive findings of Judge Hanna. The Finance Committee of the Kansas City, Missouri, City Council was responsible for the budget recommendation of 1988-89 fiscal year which was to be given to the full council. That recommendation was due on or before April 21st, 1988. The committee was made up of the following people: Bob Lewellen, (chairman), Joanne Collins, Katheryn Shields, and Mark Bryant.

During January, February, March and April of 1988, the finance committee held a series of public hearings on the issue of budget cuts. On March 10, 1988, at a regular session of the city council, the city manager, David Olson, recommended a proposed budget. That recommendation included budget cuts in some city programs and the entire elimination of other programs. That proposal spurred "intense citizen and media interest in the budget process for the 1988-89 fiscal year."

Following a "contentious" city council meeting, Bryant suggested to Lewellen that a luncheon meeting might be in order to discuss the budget in a general away. That luncheon meeting was held in a private dining room at Fedora's Cafe and Bar on the following day, April 14. Those in attendance were the chairman of the finance committee, two of the three committee members, and two key staff personnel. Bryant was unable to attend the meeting.

No notice of the noon luncheon meeting was given or posted. At the meeting, the following budgetary matters were discussed: summer youth enrichment program, police helicopter unit, city probation program, open door school program, finance earnings tax collections, and trash bag dissemination.

Those subjects were covered in a document entitled "Another Budget Alternative," brought to the meeting by Olson and passed to each member of the committee. It listed the various programs and the cost to fund each, for a total expenditure of $6,500,000.00. The document also showed potential revenues of approximately the same amount.

Following the luncheon meeting, and at Lewellen's suggestion, Olson prepared a memorandum setting forth the proposed budget amendments for review by the committee members. That memo was forwarded to the mayor and other members of city council after consultation between the finance committee members and the city manager. It was signed by all the members of the finance committee. It set forth the unanimous agreement of the finance committee to certain amendments to the city manager's budget as outlined in the attachment to the memorandum. That amendment was virtually identical to the document entitled "Another Budget Alternative" which Mr. Olson had presented and which was discussed at the April 14 luncheon at Fedora's. In essence, many budget items previously deleted were reinstated at the Fedora meeting and then by the full council.

Shields is an attorney. Before she served on the city council she worked for the Jackson County Counselor's Office. Her legal duties with the counselor's office required her to comply with the Sunshine Law and to draft notices of public or closed meetings. Shields suggested Fedora's as the site for the luncheon, then she instructed her aide to schedule the luncheon in the private back dining room at Fedora's.

Shields' own testimony disclosed that Bryant suggested to the chairman "that the Finance Committee get together over lunch some day to discuss the budget in a general way." Lewellen thought it "would be a good idea to have Mr. Olson [the city manager] and Mr. Leiker [finance department] attend the luncheon so they could explain some of their reasoning on the budget and explain any options they may have come up with." Lewellen first mentioned the luncheon meeting to Shields some time in the afternoon of April 13th. Shields felt that the luncheon, "seemed like a good way of giving me some additional information." In response to a question about her aide having made the room reservations at Fedora's, Shields answered: "Subsequently, at some point after Bob asked me to go to lunch, that same afternoon he also asked me, I think he said his aide wasn't available, would I have my aide set up lunch at Fedora's, so I did; asked her to do that."

Shields, elected to the council in March, 1987, had, along with the other council persons, been the subject of a prior open meetings suit filed by the respondent. The Kansas City Council had been involved in a closed vote by the members on a change of fire-fighting services at the airport.

On the basis of all the previously mentioned findings, the court, under § 610.027.3 found by a preponderance of the evidence the defendant members of the council had purposely violated the law. It entered an injunction against the chairman, § 610.030, and assessed a civil fine against each defendant. Shields' $100 fine and a share of costs under § 610.027.3 resulted from a conclusion that the luncheon was a public meeting, § 610.010(3), and not an informal gathering for social purposes § 610.010(3), of a public governmental body, § 610.010(2), at which, "any public business is discussed, decided, or public policy formulated[.]," and occurred without notice having been given under § 610.020. The matters discussed were significant, were discussed by a quorum of the committee in violation of both the letter and the spirit of the law, which is to make meetings, votes, actions and deliberations of public governmental bodies open to the public, § 610.011.1. The trial court concluded that the matters addressed at the luncheon were "significant, sensitive and controversial budgetary matters," and were "discussed by a quorum of the Finance Committee," of which Shields was a member.

In this appeal, Shields does not contest the findings of fact, nor the conclusions that this meeting was a "public meeting," at which public business was discussed and therefore required a notice which was not given. The crux of Shields argument on appeal centers around Judge Hanna's conclusion of law which reads:

Council members Collins and Shields were aware that during the luncheon meeting budgetary matters were being discussed with a quorum of the Finance Committee present. These two council members exposed themselves to the decision-making process when they remained at the luncheon at Fedora's while there was discussion of the budget for the coming year. By remaining at the meeting they violated the Sunshine Law. They had a responsibility to leave the meeting immediately upon recognition of the foregoing facts. They did not do so. (Emphasis Added.)

Basically, Shields argues the trial court erred in determining that she had violated the Sunshine Law by failing to leave a luncheon "meeting," when the law does not impose such a "duty to leave." In the alternative, she claims that if the trial court correctly interpreted the Sunshine Law and specifically the part of that law concerning civil fines, then such an interpretation is unreasonably vague as it relates to her claim.

Shields' contention that the Sunshine Law is vague, raises the question of this court's jurisdiction. Under Mo. Const. Art. V, § 3, the state supreme court has exclusive jurisdiction in all cases involving the validity of a statute. If any point on appeal involves such a question, the case goes to our supreme court. State ex rel. Union Electric Co. v. Public Service Commission, 687 S.W.2d 162 (Mo. banc 1985); State v. Charity, 637 S.W.2d 319,...