Wildwood Council Member Says She Did Not Violate Sunshine Law

At Monday evening's Wildwood city council meeting, the majority of 13 council members present at the meeting voted 11-2 to initiate an investigation about whether the actions of one council member violated city charter guidelines and Missouri's Sunshine Law.

Missouri's Sunshine Law anchors transparency regarding government-related activities. The law states that meetings, records, votes, actions, and deliberations of public governmental bodies be open to the public, unless otherwise provided by law, such as during legal action situations or personnel matters. For details regarding the state's Sunshine Law, click here.

Parks sent an electronic communication on May 19 from her personal e-mail account to a group of fellow council members about the potential reconsideration of as an appointed council member, but did not copy Wildwood's city clerk on the correspondence.

Parks read the following statement Monday as her explanation:

"I would like to apologize to the city and the council for any confusion which my email has created. It was not my intent to embarrass the city, staff or council with this email. It was simply an expression of my personal opinion.

At the time of the email there was confusion regarding Mr. Kozlowski's status on council. There were several emails from David Sewell questioning the voting process for appointments. When Mr. Sewell called, he said that Mr. Kennedy had informed him that the appointment might not be legal. There was no communication from the mayor or staff to this effect but there was a suggestion that the appointment vote could be reconsidered. For that reason I sent an email to seven people stating that because I did not think Mr. Kozlowski was the best choice to represent Ward 1, I hoped they would not reconsider the appointment. Note that at this point there were apparently 16 people on council and I sent the email to seven of them. Counting myself, the total of eight people doesn't represent a majority of council and the email therefore does not represent a violation of the sunshine law.

The second part of the complaint alleges that I used my official position in an attempt to influence the outcome of a vote. Note that Section 11.3 of the (Wildwood) Charter states that 'No City officer, board member, Council member, commission member or employee shall use official authority or official influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election to City office.' I used my personal email account to express my personal opinion which I believe I am entitled to under Freedom of Speech. At no time did I use my title or position in the email to represent this as a council decision. Nor did this opinion represent an election; it was directed at the vote for an appointment."

Ward 1 council member David Geile moved to launch an investigation, with Ward 3 council member Tammy Shea seconding the motion. Geile and Shea also moved to eliminate Parks position as mayor pro tempore, but that motion failed 6-7.

Editor's Note:  A separate article regarding reactions to this development will be published on Eureka-Wildwood Patch.