Dear Editor,
I have been asked to write a letter clarifying what the policies of the County Water District of Billings Heights are when it comes to complying with the Open Meeting Law of Montana. First, all meetings of the County Water District Board are posted and open to attendance by members of the public with two exceptions allowed by law to be closed. The first exception is a meeting involving litigation and the second is a meeting involving the discussion of a matter involving individual privacy where the “demands of individual privacy clearly exceed the merits of public disclosure.” MCA 2-3-203. Even our meetings involving those exceptions are posted, but are then closed to the public under the law.
The case of Associated Press v. Usher in 2022 noted that state law defines a meeting as requiring a quorum of a board or an agency meeting to conduct business. The County Water District currently has six board members and a quorum of the Board is four Directors. A gathering of three members is not a meeting that can conduct business as it lacks a quorum.
Thank you.
Jeff Essmann
President CWDBH
