One meeting to rule them all

Chester Township commissioners exchanged individual emails with the local land trust and had one-on-one separate meetings with land trust staff to learn more about easements. Then, they held a public meeting at which they voted to grant an easement to the land trust. Was that enough to satisfy open meeting laws?  

Township board member Kenneth Radtke thought not. He filed suit against the land trust and two other board members arguing that the one-on-one meetings and emails violated the open meetings law and tainted the final open meeting. He argued that the back-to-back, one-on-one meetings, were an end run around open meeting laws and should be considered an illegitimate closed door meeting. Because of this, he argued that the court should invalidate the easement — allowing the newly elected commission to dispose of the property without restrictions.

The trial court reviewed discovery materials and heard motions and finally dismissed the suit. The judge found that one-on-one information gathering meetings don’t count and neither do emails. An intermediate appellate court affirmed the trial court. The appellate judge firmly stated that “none of the one-on-one sessions was required to be an open meeting.” Mr Radtke appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court but that court declined to hear his case. After a long battle, the case is finally concluded. The land trust was named in the protracted suit and used its insurance coverage to defend itself and the public interest in the conservation easement.