SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) -- A week after being seated, Sioux Falls eight City Councilors had a meeting where no minutes were kept.
They met for dinner about 7 p.m., Tuesday, May 22 after the City Council Informational Meeting at MacKenzie River Pizza.
In the month prior during the election, all the newly seated members of the Council talked about better transparency of the public's business with the Council.
Though all eight Councilors (minus Mayor Paul TenHaken) were present, the meeting did not violate the state's open meetings law. The City Clerk's Office had previously noticed the meeting on the Sioux Falls City Council Schedule of Meetings and Events on May 18.
"Although the public was made aware of the gathering, the dinner was not an official meeting—there was a quorum present, but no official business was “discussed or decided, or public policy formulated” (the other components of an official meeting.)," according to a written response to KELO.com News' inquiry about the meeting with City Clerk Tom Greco.
Accordingly, Greco said, minutes were not taken.
"The dinner was a social gathering and in cases like this where a quorum is likely, but no official business is to be discussed or decided, we list the events so that the media and others are aware," Greco wrote. "Official meetings, consequently, require proper notice, an agenda, and, in most cases, minutes."
It's not unusual for Councilors to receive invitations to events as a Council, according to Councilor Theresa Stehly.
"We (the Council) get invited to many things," Stehly told KELO.com News. "They (the meetings) have to be noticed if we're all invited."
Stehly says sometimes no one may go to a noticed public event. Sometimes everyone on the Council goes. And sometimes, she's the only one who may attend a function.
She also said that the Councilors typically do all sit together if they do happen to attend a function they've been invited to.
The dinner didn't take place last year, Stehly said, because there was a concern that "people would show up."
Stehly said this year's dinner over pizza was helpful to her.
"It was nice," she said. "It helped me get to know the others (Councilors)."
One citizen, activist Bruce Danielson, did show up at this year's dinner. Stehly says he sat behind the Councilors.
Stehly also mentioned "The Breakfast Club," where members of the Council, the Minnehaha County Commission, and Sioux Falls School Board meet once a month socially.
Stehly said any group can invite the entire Council to their event and it will be noticed by the Clerk, either by posting it on the Carnegie Town Hall door or electronically distributed.