On Friday, November 9, another reporting body raised a question about the legality of the Manning City Council's agenda for Tuesday, November 13. On the agenda, it lists an executive session item. However, it does not list what will be discussed during the executive session. Due to this question arising regarding the legality of the agenda for Tuesday, the attorneys for the City Council have responded with a press release.
"The Manning City Council ("Council") has published an agenda for its November 13, 2018, meeting that includes an executive session. Consistent with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the agenda does not include a listing of items to be discussed in executive session. The South Carolina Supreme Court recently reiterated its longstanding holding, first adopted in 1986, that 'FOIA does not require that an agenda for an executive session be posted or that the news media be notified of the agenda of an executive session.' Brock v. Town of Mt. Pleasant.
In order for the Council to enter into executive session, Section 30-4-70(b) of FOIA provides that:
'Before going into executive session, the public agency shall vote in public on the question and when the vote is favorable, the presiding officer shall announce the specific purpose of the executive session. As used in this subsection, "specific purpose" means a description of the matter to be discussed as identified in items (1) through (5) of subsection (a) of this section. However, when the executive session is held pursuant to Sections 30-4-70(a)(1) or 30-4-70(a)(5), the identity of the individual or entity being discussed is not required to be disclosed to satisfy the requirement that the specific purpose of the executive session be stated. No action may be taken in executive session except to (a) adjourn or (b) return to public session. The members of a public body may not commit the public body to a course of action by a polling of members in executive session.' (emphasis added)
Also, in keeping with the Supreme Court's ruling in the Brock case, the Council's agenda includes a notice of possible action from executive session."
Manning Mayor Julia Nelson was available to comment on the situation.
"The reason we don't have an item under executive session is we don't have anything on the agenda we feel we need to go into executive session for," said Nelson.
According to Nelson, at a recent Council retreat, they were advised to keep the executive session item on the agenda, even if there were no plans to go into executive session, to accommodate emergency situations. This would be only for last-second, emergency issues which could not wait for another meeting to be called for the issue to be handled.
"This leaves a way to go into executive session for such an emergency and follow through with whatever it is. It could be weather conditions or something urgent with an employee such as an officer being shot which came up after the agenda was printed," said Nelson. "It could be anything we must take immediate action on, and it would have to be stated as an emergency."
Nelson further stated this would never be used to make a purchase or pass a law that would impact the citizens of Manning without them having due notice. She then reiterated there is nothing they plan to discuss in executive session on Tuesday.
"We don't ever anticipate having to use it , but we said we'd start putting it on the agenda. This will give us a chance to educate the people before we ever need it," said Nelson. "We try to be as transparent as possible."
