Big Cabin settles Open Meeting Act suit over keeping public from meetings

The town of Big Cabin admitted Thursday that a court could rule its trustees violated the Open Meeting Act when they shut the public out of four meetings early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a settlement filed in the Craig County District Court, the town also agreed to pay $10,000 in attorney fees for the plaintiffs.

However, the town denied the Open Meeting Act violations in spring 2020 were willful.

The town had limited attendance at its March, April, May and June trustee meetings to 10 people, including the five trustees, town employees and the mayor’s wife.
The town justified the limit by citing an amended executive order issued by Gov. Kevin Stitt that March that prohibited “social gatherings of more than ten people” because of the pandemic.

Big Cabin omitted the word “social” from the notice it posted at City Hall to limit attendance. The town also limited attendance at its May and June meetings even though the governor’s executive order had expired April 30.

Keeping the public from the meetings also was at odds with an Oklahoma Attorney General Office advisory issued two days after the executive order. The advisory emphasized that the number of people attending an in-person public meeting could not be limited even for social distancing purposes. Instead, public bodies should have determined if a larger room was needed or used multiple rooms or locations with live audio and video feeds to each.

Under a 1984 state Supreme Court ruling, “Willfulness does not require a showing of bad faith, malice, or wantonness, but rather, encompasses conscious, purposeful violations of the law or blatant or deliberate disregard of the law by those who know, or should know the requirements of the Act.” (Rogers v. Excise Bd. of Greer Cnty., 1984 OK 95, ¶ 14)

The court was relying upon a 1981 Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals ruling in which the lower appellate court had rejected the notion that “‘good faith’ precludes a finding of willfulness.”

“If willful is narrowly interpreted, if actions taken in violation of the Act could not be set aside unless done in bad faith, maliciously, obstinately, with a premeditated evil design and intent to do wrong, then the public would be left helpless to enforce the Act most of the time and public bodies could go merrily along, in good faith, ignoring the Act,” the court explained. (Matter of Order Declaring Annexation, 1981 OK CIV APP 57, ¶¶ 24-25)

The Big Cabin trustees were Mayor Sam Yeoman, Tom Trundell, Ed Sullivan, Mike Ryan and Kash Harlan.

The plaintiffs were Craig County Clerk Tammy Malone, Lisa Helm, Dwight Helm,

Kelly Kilpatrick, Marty Kilpatrick, Lisa Johnson, Kim Bass, David Bass, Angella Barlass, Chris Barlass, Sandra Polk and Tom Polk Sr. They were represented by Vinita attorney Josh D. Lee, a former member of the FOI Oklahoma board of directors.

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Joey Senat, Ph.D., Associate Professor, OSU School of Media & Strategic Communications

@Joey_Senat / Mass Communication Law in Oklahoma / Our Right to Know in Oklahoma