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From: Judy Gafa [mailto:gafaj@gpschools.com] 
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2015 12:36 PM
To: Fenton, Christian
Cc: Daniel Roeske; Lois Valente; Margaret Weertz; Ahmed Ismail; Pangborn, Cindy; Brian Summerfield
Subject: More questions surrounding the OMA from Concerned Board members

Chris 

Please see below, Mr Summerfield is concerned and has further questions.

I have CC'D the entire board as the OMA affects the entire board not just a single board member.

Please answer all when you reply

Respectfully

Judy Gafa

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brian Summerfield <summerb@gpschools.com>
Date: Monday, March 23, 2015
Subject: Mrs. Gafa's Incorrect Interpretation of the Open Meetings Act
To: Judy Gafa <GafaJ@gpschools.com>

Mrs. Gafa,

I have some follow up questions regarding the opinion, and request the information under Policy 0143. Please ask our legal counsel whether a communication is a violation of the Open Meetings Act depends on the content of the email and the intent of the sender. Based on Mr. Fenton's email, it appears that what a board member does in response to a group email may or may not be an OMA violation depending on those factors, but it is less clear whether that applies to the original sender. For instance, I can't send an email to the entire board asking everyone if they agree with the District taking a certain action, can I? If these are factual issues, what are the legal risks to the District communicating in this fashion? Is there any potential liability under the OMA for those merely receiving a communication that violates the OMA? That is, will the communication only harm the sender or does it also expose the District or other Board members to liability?  Finally, does legal counsel have a recommendation on how the Board should use email to minimize risk to the District and to us as individual Board members? It was my impression from our policies, particularly 0143 (requiring Board Members to direct their requests for information to the Superintendent or Board President only) and 0167.5, that it was Board policy to avoid quorum communications. Thanks

Brian C. Summerfield

On Mon, Mar 23, 2015 at 10:31 AM, Ahmed Ismail <ahmed@portraitplacegpw.com> wrote:

Chris,

So, the bottom line is that the directive in the last sentence of Mrs.
Gafa's email to board members dated March 21 at 12:19PM EST (copy below)
stating that "...Please do not reply all to this email as it will violate
the OMA..." is not true.  Board members sending an email response to Mrs.
Gafa's request for information by way of a "reply all" response do not
violate the Open Meetings Act.

Thank you for confirming the accuracy of my interpretation of The Open
Meetings Act with regards to Mrs. Gafa's statement as outlined in my email
to you both dated March 21 at 1:08 PM EST.

Best wishes,

Ahmed

P.S. to all Board members--my original inquiry on this was directed to Mr.
Fenton and courtesy copied only to Mrs. Gafa so as not to not involve
everyone in a personal question I had on Mrs. Gafa's interpretation of the
OMA.  The only reason I am including you on this email distribution is Mrs.
Gafa's email advising you all of my question.

------------------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: Fenton, Christian [mailto:Christian.Fenton@gpschools.org]
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2015 9:46 AM
Subject: RE: Judy's Board Goal Email--How Does Responding to it Trigger an
OMA Violation?

Judy/Ahmed,
I reviewed the question with Mark this am to make sure I was correct. If the
Board President( or any other trustee) asked for suggestions (whether Goals
or some other idea) it is not a violation of the OMA in and by itself.  It
becomes a violation if one member were to challenge or suggest that another
trustee's goal (in this case) was good, bad etc. The violation comes in the
debate not in the suggestion of a goal. If you just collect the goals,
whether individually or as a group it is fine. Collecting them individually
would help limit the possibility of a debate or challenge to other Trustees.
It can become a violation if Trustee A responds and debates or challenges
Trustee B,C, D etc goals.
I have copied Mark on this .
Chris
----------------------------------------------------
From: Ahmed Ismail [mailto:ahmed@portraitplacegpw.com]
Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2015 1:08 PM
To: Fenton, Christian
Cc: 'Gafa, Judy (GPPSS)'
Subject: Judy's Board Goal Email--How Does Responding to it Trigger an OMA
Violation?

Chris,

In order to respect Judy's request to not "reply" (I am assuming she meant
"reply all") to the email below, I am just sending this email to you and
copying Judy.  Since you are our FOIA coordinator, you also have the most
working experience with OMA section definitions as well.  I am confused as
to what section number of the OMA replying to Judy's email would violate.

Judy has not asked for or initiated any kind of deliberation.  She has asked
that we "think" about what board goals each of would like to discuss at a
future meeting.  She has not even asked that we submit them to her.

How would a reply (even if it included the goals I would like discuss)
trigger a violation of a section of the OMA, and, if so, which section do
you feel it would violate?  The only way I can see it would remotely cause
concern of a "deliberation" violation is if someone posted their board goals
and another board member piped in and challenged the goals, which would then
create the appearance of a deliberation.
On an semi-related request, under our new email posting rule, if you do feel
replying to the email would cause an OMA violation, aren't you required to
post it to the website?

This is a very low priority request, Chris, so if you don't know the section
off the top of your head, don't worry about it and don't spend the money to
ask Mark McInerney--just let me know and I will contact an OMA guru I know
who I am sure will give me a "freebie" answer to this question.

Thank you,

Ahmed

________________________________
From: Judy Gafa
Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2015 12:19:29 PM (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US &
Canada)
To: School Board
Subject: Board Goals

Fellow Trustees,
After reading the survey results and comments, it is very clear that the
community would like the board to function better.
I am going to ask each of you to think of one or two board goals to help us
operate more effectively. Ideally these goal should be linked to the
district goals.
I will set aside time for us as a board at a future meeting to discuss these
goals and then set the goals for this board.
Please do not reply all to this email as it will violate the OMA.  Please
send me your ideas separately and I will create a document to be published
showing everyone's input.
Thank You
Respectfully
Judy Gafa