Dear Editor,
The city’s new Airport Advisory Board has been appointed by the city council and now begins its work for the city. I know these people and I know that they have much to learn about doing the public’s business for the city.
The first thing to learn is that the city government meetings are structured and carried out the way they are because they must conform to Wyoming Statutes, in this case the public meetings laws codified in Title 16, Article 4 of the Wyoming Statutes. The board has only five members instead of the six council members and the mayor of the city government but it still should have a chairman or other presiding officer, a vice-chairman and a secretary. The vice-chairman takes the place of the chairman in the event the chairman cannot be at a meeting and the Secretary takes the minutes of the meetings, a requirement of law since the published minutes of a meeting of a public agency are the legal record of the business conducted at that meeting. That is the reason that the approval of the minutes of the previous meeting is always a matter to be voted upon by whichever governing body is having the current meeting.
The laws are very clear that all the meetings of the board are public meetings and must therefore meet all the requirements for the inclusion of members of the public interested in at least witnessing the conduct of the board’s business.
Advance notice of the time and place of all meetings are required for public attendance or whenever requested by a citizen or other public entity.
Title 16, Article 4 makes clear that the failure to conduct business in accordance with its terms causes anything which occurs at any meeting where the laws have not been followed, to be mute and void with possible misdemeanor penalties for deliberate circumvention of the laws of Title 16, Article 4.
I believe that the new Airport Advisory Board will be conscientiously observant of its duties at its meetings when it gathers to conduct the city’s business regarding the airport and encourage and allow public participation in the board’s business discussions.
James Punches
Green River
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