By David Bordewyk
The theme for this year’s National Newspaper Week is “Telling Our Stories” – a reminder about the role of newspapers in reporting the important stories in their communities.
Stories that run the gamut: human-interest features, football game recaps, new businesses in town and, of course, local government meetings.
Keeping an eye on government and informing readers about public board meetings are among the most important jobs for a community newspaper. Sometimes, the local newspaper reporter may be the only person sitting in the audience for a city council or school board meeting.
South Dakota’s open meetings laws provide a road map for how government boards must notify citizens about upcoming public meetings and how they conduct certain aspects of their meetings.
At times, the open meetings laws can be confusing and lead to misunderstanding. Over the years, newspapers have reported many stories about problems related to compliance with our state’s open meetings laws.
Among the cases that have come before the South Dakota Open Meetings Commission since its inception in 2004 are those rooted in the fact that public officials did not properly understand the laws and they unknowingly violated them.
That is why South Dakota NewsMedia Association – which represents the state’s newspapers and various digital news outlets – will support a bill in the 2025 legislature that would require all public boards to review the open meetings laws once a year. We believe a little refresher course each year would go a long way toward eliminating those unintended violations and missteps involving these important laws.
The proposal as currently drafted is straightforward:
“Any agency, as defined in § 1-26-1, or political subdivision of this state that is required to provide public notice of its meetings pursuant to § 1-25-1.1 or 1-25-1.3 must receive a presentation from a licensed attorney employed by the agency or subdivision at the first official meeting of the agency or subdivision each calendar year, reviewing the explanation of the open meeting laws of this state published by the attorney general, pursuant to § 1-11-1.”
That’s it. No heavy mandate and no expenditures of tax dollars. Just a bit of time devoted annually to reviewing the open meetings laws.
The open meetings guide prepared by the South Dakota attorney general is an ideal educational tool to help public boards complete an annual review. You can find it on the attorney general’s website (www.atg.sd.gov) under the “legal resources” tab.
Most government boards in South Dakota are comprised of citizens who volunteer their time and energy to serve in a public role. A little education will go a long way toward supporting our volunteer public officials in navigating an important set of open government laws. This would be especially helpful given the natural turnover of boards either by elections or other means.
Open government is akin to good government. We believe our legislative proposal will reinforce both of those important ideals.
David Bordewyk is executive director of the South Dakota NewsMedia Association, which represents the state’s newspapers and various digital news outlets.
UPDATE 10/3/24: The language of the draft bill has been updated.
