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Martin County studies post-pandemic meeting rules

FAIRMONT — Questioning whether to continue meeting via video conferencing in light of the current declared state of emergency, Martin County commissioners heard from County Attorney Terry Viesselman on Tuesday.

Specifically, Viesselman presented a review of open meeting law requirements.

“Statute 13D.021 says that the presiding officer or the public body, if they determine that because of a health pandemic or emergency declared under Chapter 12, which is what the governor’s been doing his executive orders under, they can determine that it is not practical or prudent to have live meetings and then do remote meetings,” he said. “The pandemic and emergency orders are still going on, so you can do your remote meetings as long as that condition continues. Or if the presiding officer or legal counsel of the governing body determines at their discretion that it’s now prudent to go live and have in-person meetings, you can do that.”

“If he (Gov. Tim Walz) doesn’t extend this emergency, will all the rest of our meetings go back to live meetings?” asked Commissioner Steve Flohrs.

“No,” replied Viesselman. “The presiding officer for each one of those meetings, or legal counsel, can make that determination.”

Commissioner Richard Koons asked if there is a time after the emergency declaration runs out that the board will be required to meet in person. Viesselman noted that is not the case, as there is no deadline language in the statute.

“It’s whatever the presiding officer feels is prudent,” he said. “Of course, the presiding officer has to be reasonable in his determination which, as always, is subject to court review.”

Sheriff Jeff Markquart also brought a question to the table concerning a potential extended emergency.

“As long as we’re talking about that, if the governor does extend this order, how does that effect county-supported gatherings that would be going on after that?”

“If the governor does extend his order, people are supposed to comply with it. If there’s non-compliance, law enforcement can go out and issue tickets, or the county could go to court or get injunction orders.

“For example, if a city were to be having a festival and we knew that they were going to be violating the order, you could try to get a court order to enjoin that case. That’s very difficult, because how do you know if they’re going to comply or not? Right now the limit for gatherings is 250 people.

“So it would be tough to prove how many people are going to be there, so it’s more likely what’s going to happen if they violate the order and they’re exceeding the number of people that are supposed to be there, then local law enforcement should be enforcing the law because that would be a crime.”

“On those lines, how does that effect something that the county would be supporting, such as the event planned for Aug. 1?” asked Markquart, referring to a veterans memorial dedication in Fairmont.

“The county should not support anything that’s going to violate the governor’s order,” replied Viesselman. “That would be illegal.”

Commissioner Kathy Smith shared her perspective from the veterans dedication committee.

“We’ve talked about it every week for I don’t know how many weeks that the county will comply with the governor’s orders,” she said.

“We are going to talk about it again to make sure the county is doing everything it needs to do. We will comply.”

In other action, the board passed a resolution to declare a vacancy on the board because of the death of Tom Mahoney. This means a special election will need to be held to fill the remaining term of the District 2 seat.

The resolution states: The filing period for candidates shall be from July 28, 2020, to Aug. 11, 2020, if two or more candidates file, the special primary election shall be held Nov. 3, 2020, and the general election shall be held Feb. 9, 2021.

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