State, ex rel. Craft v. Schisler

• Decision Date: 28 December 1988
• Docket Number: No. 87-1814,87-1814
• Citation: 40 Ohio St.3d 149,532 N.E.2d 719
• Parties: The STATE, ex rel. CRAFT, et al., v. SCHISLER, City Solicitor, et al.
• Court: Ohio Supreme Court

Page 149

40 Ohio St.3d 149

532 N.E.2d 719

The STATE, ex rel. CRAFT, et al., v. SCHISLER, City Solicitor, et al.

No. 87-1814.

Supreme Court of Ohio.

Submitted Nov. 14, 1988.

Decided Dec. 28, 1988.

Relators are Flora Craft and Mark R. Switalski, both of whom are registered voters and residents of Portsmouth, Ohio, a charter municipality. Relators seek an order directing respondents, the Portsmouth City Council (including, among others, council members Mayor Ralph L. Bussey, Valerie Gerlach, and Jeffery Walburn) and Portsmouth City Solicitor, Richard T. Schisler, to conduct all city council meetings in public as required by Section 4 of the Charter of the City of Portsmouth. Originally, relators also asked that respondents be ordered to announce, in advance, meetings that are to be held at locations other than the Portsmouth Municipal Building. However, they have abandoned this claim for relief.

The events at issue revolve primarily around Craft and her regular attendance at Portsmouth City Council meetings. The record substantiates that on several occasions, Craft has been asked to leave the meetings before they ended. One such occasion was October 13, 1987. Another was February 29, 1988, when all or substantially all of the members left the council chambers to assemble in the city solicitor's office. Beyond this, it appears that members of the public are routinely excluded from, and/or are not invited to attend, some parts of council meetings.

The Portsmouth City Council generally holds two types of public meetings: legislative and conference. At the legislative meetings, the council formally acts on legislation. The conference meetings are considered "work sessions" in which the members discuss pending legislation. The council holds four meetings per month, alternating conference meetings with legislative meetings.

The council also holds executive meetings that are closed to the public. Although the city's charter makes no mention of these meetings, executive sessions have been used to discuss matters relating to labor negotiations, personnel changes, and selections of council officers, as well as to annually review the city's goals and priorities with the city manager. One such private executive meeting was held after a regular legislative meeting on October 13, 1987 to consider the effect of expansion plans proposed by Shawnee State University on Portsmouth's street scheme. Another was held on February 29, 1988 to discuss negotiations with the city's fire and police departments. Neither the time of an executive meeting nor the purpose for which it was called has ever been posted prior to the meeting.

Craft attended the legislative meeting on October 13, 1987. After its adjournment, she noticed that about twenty people were staying to speak with the council members, including some representatives of Shawnee State University. Craft stayed too. However, when Mayor Bussey saw Craft in the council chambers after the meeting, he asked Ruth Jacqueline Coriell, then the city's clerk (Coriell was later discharged from this position on November 4, 1987), to tell Craft to leave. Coriell refused to do so and told Craft that the mayor wanted to see her. Coriell heard Craft ask Bussey why she had to leave when so many others were still in the council chambers. Coriell also heard Bussey respond by telling Craft that the meeting was "private."

The October 13 meeting with the Shawnee State University representatives was purportedly closed upon their request. Craft, however, testified that one of the representatives told her that she could stay as far as he was concerned. In any event, Bussey's testimony supports the allegation that the council routinely honors requests to meet in private.

Craft also attended the legislative meeting held on February 29, 1988. Bussey asked her to leave council chambers after the regular meeting on this occasion, too. When Craft refused, the council members went into the solicitor's office to discuss labor negotiations in private.

Steven E. Hillman, Columbus, and Mark W. Price, Portsmouth, for relators.

Richard T. Schisler, City Sol., pro se and for respondents.

PER CURIAM.

In this case, we are again asked whether a city council must hold its meetings in public when required to do so by charter. For the reasons that follow, we hold that it must, and that relators are entitled to a peremptory writ of mandamus.

Section 4 of the Charter of the City of Portsmouth provides:

"At seven o'clock P.M. on the first Monday in January following a regular municipal election the Council shall meet at the usual place for holding Council meetings and the newly elected members shall assume the duties of office. Thereafter the Council shall meet at such times as may be prescribed by ordinance or resolution, but not less frequently than twice each month. Special meetings may be held upon vote of the Council taken in any regular or special meeting, also, shall be called by the Clerk upon the written request of the Mayor, the City Manager or three members of the Council. Any such vote or request shall state the subject to be considered at the special meeting and no other subject shall be there considered. All meetings of the Council and of committees thereof shall be open to the public, and the rules of the Council shall provide that citizens of the City shall have a reasonable opportunity to be heard at any such meeting in regard to any matter considered thereat." (Emphasis added.)

Relators argue that by requiring all council and committee meetings to be public, this charter provision prohibits any meeting, regardless of its purpose, from being private. Relators rely principally on ...