Skip to main content

Texting into trouble

By
Alexis Barker, NLJ News Editor

Lawyer Bruce Moats, representing the News Letter Journal, Kari Drost, Patricia Bauman and Raymond Norris in a case filed against the Board of Weston County Commissioners, has asked to depose Commissioner Don Taylor after learning about the board’s use of group text messaging as a form of communication. 
Moats is representing the listed plaintiffs in a case that questions the legality of a secret ballot vote to replace former Rep. Hans Hunt with Rep. JD Williams, R-Lusk, as representative for House District 2 in October, 2021. 
According to the deposition request addressed to the board’s special counsel Tucker Ruby, who is the Johnson County & prosecuting attorney, Taylor had revealed the text messages to Drost during an exchange on Sept. 11. 
“I need to depose Commissioner Taylor about the practice of commissioners texting prior to meetings, including any text messages about the process for appointing Hans Hunt’s replacement,” Moats wrote. “This may then require further depositions.” 
According to Moats, Wyoming Statute 16-4-403(d) addresses the use of text messaging as a form of communication for boards. It states that “no meeting shall be conducted by electronic means or any other form of communication that does not permit the public to hear, read or otherwise discern meeting discussions contemporaneously. Communications outside a meeting, including, but not limited to, sequential communications among members of an agency, shall not be used to circumvent the purposes of this act.” 
“First, text messages are certainly sequential communications, so the commissioners were using the messages to conduct business hidden
from the public, which circumvents the purpose of the Act,” Moats said. 
“Further, we have seen from meetings conducted remotely during the pandemic that a quorum of the governing body does not have to be in the same place for a meeting,” Moats continued. “The text messages, as I understand their content, constitute a discussion of public business, though it may be drawn out for a period of time as the texts are sent. The definition of a meeting in the Act includes ‘discussion, deliberation, presentation of information or taking action regarding public business.’ So, if any of the items on the list are present, then it is a meeting. Here, they are presenting information and discussing it, so it is a meeting conducted via group text.” 
According to Jerimiah Rieman, executive director of the Wyoming County Commissioners Association, electronic communication, specifically statute 16-4-403(d), was included in a training conducted by Rieman at the request of Deputy Weston County Attorney Jeani Stone on April 19. 
He did note that he is not an attorney and that the board should always consult their legal council. 
Questions to Stone and County Attorney Michael Stulken about the text message thread were not returned by press time. 
Rieman said that when working with board training, he explains that, per statute, using text communications or any other electronic means to conduct a meeting is explicitly prohibited. He noted that he adds that text communication between commissioners — in a quorum or, more precisely, not in “meeting[s]” as defined by W.S. 16-4-403(a)(iii) — is acceptable, but commissioners must never take action as defined by W.S. 16-4-402(a)(i) in those exchanges. 
“I also recommend commissioners consider, during meetings (i.e., in quorum), whether text communication between individual commissioners or even public attendees is appropriate, even if lawful,” Rieman said. “Further, I advise commissioners they must realize that their text communications may be subject to Wyoming’s public records laws (W.S. 16-4-201 through 205).”
When asked how he would advise an entity that had been caught using text messages to communicate in quorum, he stated he would advise any board using text communication or other electronic means to conduct meetings to cease doing so immediately. He noted he would advise the board to conduct its business contemporaneously, consistent with W.S. 6-4-403(d). 
“Thereafter, I would advise those commissions that any decisions they made via electronic means should be considered null and void,” Rieman said “In all such situations, I would advise commissioners (to) consult their legal counsel to rectify any issues.”

--- Online Subscribers: Please click here to log in to read this story and access all content.

Not an Online Subscriber? Click here to subscribe.



Sign up for News Alerts

Subscribe to news updates