Palmer City Council mandates closed meeting video, audio recordings

What you need to know:

• The Palmer City Council this month unanimously approved a policy requiring video and audio recordings of closed-door executive sessions, effective immediately. 
• Recordings will be overseen and cataloged by the city clerk. These recordings are not immediately accessible to the public but can be released later under specific conditions. Recording such sessions is common in many municipalities. 
• The change follows an October executive session discussing then-City Manager Stephen Jellie’s employment, which was not recorded. A police report released this month details allegations of misconduct by Jellie during the session. No charges were brought due to insufficient evidence, according to the report.

PALMER -- The Palmer City Council will now use video and audio recordings to document all closed-door executive sessions under a new policy unanimously approved by the council this month.

The city clerk will oversee and catalog the recordings, according to the ordinance. The recordings will not be available for immediate public review.

Palmer's city code allows the council to meet without public participation under certain circumstances, including when discussing matters that could negatively impact the city's finances, matters involving city personnel or issues required by state, federal or city law to remain confidential.

The ordinance was approved during the Jan. 14 meeting and went into effect immediately, city officials said. Two executive sessions held after the public portion of the meeting were set to be recorded under the new rule, they said.

Palmer City Attorney Sarah Heath requested the update late last year. Palmer's previous city code was unclear on whether such meetings should be recorded, she said at a Dec. 3 council meeting. 

Documenting executive sessions through video or audio recordings is common practice in many municipalities, she said. Palmer's new rule closely follows a policy used by the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, she said.

Whether recordings of executive sessions are ultimately available to the public depends on the subject of the meeting, the ordinance states. For example, recordings can be released through a court order, while those related to personnel matters, such as annual reviews of the city clerk, attorney or manager, may be made public six months after the employee's contract ends or six months after a new person assumes the role, the ordinance states.

The change was approved a day after the release of a Palmer Police Department report detailing the alleged contents of a closed city council executive session on Oct. 10 regarding the employment of now-former Palmer City Manager Stephen Jellie. The meeting was not recorded.

The police report, filed Nov. 6 by council members Victoria Hudson and Carolina Graver, alleges Jellie criminally harassed Hudson, Graver and Heath during the meeting through actions including yelling, aggressively lunging out of his chair and making lewd hand gestures. Hudson and Graver both requested extra police patrols near their homes in the days following the meeting, according to the report.

Officials with the Palmer District Attorney's Office declined to file criminal charges against Jellie, citing "not enough information," according to the report. Hudson and Graver were interviewed and provided extensive written statements as part of the investigation. No other interviews or statements were included in the report.

Jellie was not contacted as part of the investigation, he said in a statement. The details of the executive session included in the report are inaccurate, he said.

The council voted to accept Jellie's resignation immediately after the meeting. He received a $75,000 payout as part of his separation agreement. His resignation followed weeks of mounting criticism about his personnel practices from the city's public safety employees and a warning from the city attorney that his actions posed an "imminent threat" of lawsuits.

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com