Gillette city councilman apologizes for group texts

GILLETTE — Councilman Shay Lundvall apologized for creating group texts last week that violated Wyoming's Open Meetings Law, saying he did not intend to conduct public business.
On Thursday afternoon, Lundvall created two group texts, each with three other council members, to talk about a Cam-Plex issue.
Because there were four council members in each group text, that made it an official meeting. No notice was given for the meeting, which is a violation of the law.
“The definition of a meeting, is simply and broadly, a gathering of a quorum of a governing body’s members, discussing public business,” City Attorney Sean Brown said.
“Procedurally this was my mistake entirely and I do apologize,” Lundvall said at Tuesday’s city council meeting. “I’ve never thought that I was above the law or the law doesn’t apply to me.”
Lundvall said he’d received a call from a resident who was concerned about the daily operations at Cam-Plex.
Mayor Eric Hanson said Lundvall had contacted him about this issue, and Hanson told Lundvall to let the other council members know about it.
Lundvall said his intent was to “keep communication open and flowing between us” so that there wouldn’t be misunderstandings further down the road.
“Have you guys been contacted by anyone about the barns at Cam-plex not being used?” Lundvall texted. “Or trying to get used and staff will not let them because of roofing issues?”
He also texted that it’s not the city council’s job to get involved in Cam-Plex’s daily operations.
On Thursday, Councilman Nathan McLeland alerted City Administrator Hyun Kim about this potential violation, and Hanson confirmed it.
The incident came just two days after the city council received a third-party review of city council conduct over the last several years. It found that the council engaged in a number of improper actions, including violations of Open Meetings Law.
“It was not my intent to spit in the face of this recent investigation or disregard any rules,” Lundvall said.
He said he hopes the city council can move forward from it.
“We all want transparency, we all want to rebuild the trust of the public. There’s a ton of work that requires input from each one of us,” he said. “I believe it’s time to get to work and stop worrying about the next political move, we need to work together to solve some very complex situations we’re going to be facing.”
Resident Ben Decker thanked the city council for its efforts to be more transparent.
“Let’s not allow a minor setback to become a bigger problem than it is,” he said. “I appreciate what is being done to make this a better council, we haven’t seen this much progress toward a good local government in a long time.”
He said “it appears McLeland is making extra drama over a mistake,” which he found ironic since McLeland was part of the city council during the time period when the third-party review found numerous “improper” actions.
 
 
This story was posted on April  6, 2022