Lawyer questions GOP caucus meeting

A Helena attorney who specializes in freedom-of-information cases said there’s no question a recent after-hours meeting by Republican members of the Montana House away from the Capitol building violated Montana’s open meeting laws.

“It doesn’t make any difference where a public entity holds a meeting,” Mike Meloy told The Associated Press. “The problem of this meeting is they didn’t notify anyone, so without that it’s just as effectively closed as if the doors were locked.”

About 50 Republican lawmakers met Thursday night, Nov. 13, in the basement of a Helena hotel to talk about the 2015 legislative session. Newly elected House Majority Leader Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, said the sole purpose of the meeting was to hand out questionnaires.

The questionnaires sought opinions on the transfer of federal lands to the state, on Gov. Steve Bullock’s priorities, including Medicaid expansion and preschool, and on the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes water rights compact.

Republican Sen. Jeff Essmann, a Billings attorney, said the meeting did not fall under the state’s open meetings law because the members of the Republican caucus who attended the meeting were not on public property, the doors were not closed, and the caucus was not making legislative decisions.

Meloy disagreed, noting that if any business is discussed at a meeting of elected officials in Montana, it’s covered by open meeting law.

Essmann also questioned whether democracy is improved or hindered if people can’t have frank discussions. Again, Meloy disagreed, noting that speaking frankly is not an exception to an open meeting law.

“In Montana the rule is you have to speak frankly in front of the public, and if you want to be a public official in Montana, you just have to accept that legal proposition,” Meloy said.

Court rulings in the 1990s determined that party caucus meetings must be open to the public because party caucuses are public bodies and subject to Montana’s right-to-know laws.