84-1413 Meetings; minutes; roll call vote; secret ballot; when. - Nebraska Statutes

84-1413. Meetings; minutes;roll call vote; secret ballot; when.(1) Each publicbody shall keep minutes of all meetings showing the time, place, members presentand absent, and the substance of all matters discussed.(2) Any action taken on any question or motion duly movedand seconded shall be by roll call vote of the public body in open session,and the record shall state how each member voted or if the member was absentor not voting. The requirements of a roll call or viva voce vote shall besatisfied by a municipality,a county, a learning community, a joint entity created pursuant to the InterlocalCooperation Act, a joint public agency created pursuant to the Joint PublicAgency Act, or an agency formed under the Municipal Cooperative FinancingAct which utilizes an electronic voting device which allows theyeas and nays of each member of such city council, village board, county board, or governing body to be readilyseen by the public.(3) The vote to elect leadership within a public body maybe taken by secret ballot, but the total number of votes for each candidateshall be recorded in the minutes.(4) The minutes of all meetings and evidence and documentationreceived or disclosed in open session shall be public records and open topublic inspection during normal business hours.(5) Minutes shall be written and available for inspectionwithin ten working days or prior to the next convened meeting, whichever occursearlier, except that cities of the second class and villages may have an additionalten working days if the employee responsible for writing the minutes is absentdue to a serious illness or emergency. SourceLaws 1975, LB 325, § 6; Laws 1978, LB 609, § 3; Laws 1979, LB 86, § 9; Laws 1987, LB 663, § 26; Laws 2005, LB 501, § 1; Laws 2009, LB361, § 3. Cross ReferencesInterlocal Cooperation Act, see section 13-801.Joint Public Agency Act, see section 13-2501.Municipal Cooperative Financing Act, see section 18-2401. AnnotationsIf a person present at a meeting observes and fails to object to an alleged public meetings laws violation in the form of a failure to conduct rollcall votes before taking actions on questions or motions pending, that person waives his or her right to object at a later date. Hauser v. Nebraska Police Stds. Adv. Council, 264 Neb. 944, 653 N.W.2d 240 (2002).Subsection (2) of this section does not require the record to state that the vote was by roll call, but requires only that the record show if and how each member voted. Neither does the statute set a time limit for recording the results of a vote, after which no corrections of the record can be made. If no intervening rights of third persons have arisen, a board of county commissioners has power to correct the record of the proceedings had at a previous meeting so as to make them speak the truth, particularly where the correction supplies some omitted fact or action and is done not to contradict or change the original record but to have the record show that a certain action was taken or thing done, which the original record fails to show. State ex rel. Schuler v. Dunbar, 214 Neb. 85, 333 N.W.2d 652 (1983).Failure by a public governing body, as defined under section 84-1409, R.R.S.1943, to take and record a roll call vote on an action, as required by section 84-1413(2), R.S.Supp.,1980, grants any citizen the right to sue for the purpose of having the action declared void. In this case such failure could not be later corrected by a nunc pro tunc order because there was no showing that a roll call vote on the disputed action was actually taken, and even if it was the record showed it was not recorded until over a year later. Sections 23-1301, R.R.S.1943, and 23-1302, R.R.S.1943, make it the duty of the county clerk to record proceedings of the board of county commissioners. State ex rel. Schuler v. Dunbar, 208 Neb. 69, 302 N.W.2d 674 (1981).