The primary issues were whether the Rehoboth Beach City Council properly discussed an attorney-client memorandum prepared by their attorney in executive session; whether the Council properly discussed the sale of wastewater treatment plant in executive session; and whether the City’s Personnel Committee violated FOIA by failing to follow open meeting requirements for its January 3, 2019 meeting.
DECIDED: Discussion of an attorney-client privileged memorandum is not a proper purpose for executive session under FOIA. Because this portion of the executive session discussions did not otherwise meet the requirements of 29 Del. C. 10004(b)(4), the executive session violated FOIA. The discussion of the sale of the treatment plant property was appropriate for executive session under 29 Del. C. 10004(b)(2).
FURTHER DECIDED: The City’s Personnel Committee is a public body subject to FOIA and therefore violated FOIA by failing to comply with the open meeting requirements for its January 3, 2019 meeting. As remediation, this Office recommends that any existing meeting minutes are made available in compliance with FOIA.  If the meeting was recorded or otherwise preserved, this Office recommends that the City recreate meeting minutes from those records.  If neither minutes nor records preserving the substance of the meeting exist, this Office need not recommend any further remediation, as the City has stated in its Response that it intends to operate the Personnel Committee in accordance with FOIA’s open meeting requirements in the future.