Breaking News: City of Orono Appears to Break Open Meeting Law

BREAKING NEWS: The CITY OF ORONO appears to have BROKEN OPEN MEETING LAW again.

On Monday January 8th, 2024 three Orono City Council members gathered at the Long Lake Fire Department’s “Pinning Ceremony.” Orono Council members #MariaVeach, #MattJohnson and #RichardCrosby attended without a public announcement of a quorum (half or more members of City Council) to the Citizens of Orono.

According to the League of Minnesota Cities:

The Minnesota open meeting law generally requires that all meetings of public bodies must be noticed and open to the public. This presumption of openness serves three vital purposes:

• It prohibits actions from being taken at a secret meeting where it is impossible for the interested public to become fully informed concerning decisions of public bodies or detect improper influences.

• It ensures the public’s right to be informed

• It gives the public an opportunity to present its views to the public body.

Public notice generally must be provided for meetings of a public body subject to the open meeting law.

We checked the Crystal Bay and Long Lake post offices and there was no such posting or notification. The Citizens of Orono were not notified by email either.

Why are these council members openly violating city law - do they not know or not care? They should have known they had a majority when they lined up to have their photographs taken.

We should expect our council members to be more professional and knowledgeable of what is required of them to be our representatives. And to show up as an undisclosed majority at the Long Lake Fire Department - the very organization they are in a lawsuit with - shows a very sloppy approach to their governing style.

It is important not to overlook this behavior. Lack of transparency and improper protocols are the very reasons to vote this administration out in November.

#togetherwearebetter #stopcitizensuppression #standupforpublicrights