Written Notice Now Required Before Disciplinary or Performance Review Executive Sessions
Christy Monson
From our November 2016 e-newsletter
The Oregon Ethics Commission has adopted a new rule which changes the law regarding certain executive sessions. Specifically, the Commission decided that in order to call an executive session under ORS 192.660(2)(b) or (i) (which allows a government to go into an executive session to discuss the discipline or performance evaluations of public officers or employees), the public body must:
- provide written notice of the meeting to the employee or public official at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting;
- cite the executive session statute in the notice;
- state in the notice whether the governing body will be considering “the dismissal or disciplining of, hearing complaints or charges against, or reviewing and evaluating the performance of the public official receiving the notice”; and
- state in the notice that the employee or public official may request an open hearing.
In the past, the law required that governing bodies provide notice, but it did not specify exactly what the notice should say, when it should be given, or that it must be in writing.
