Paper files inquiry complaint: Concerns stem from March 15 closed meeting

President Randy Dunn attends the annual Chamber Breakfast in February. Dunn’s fate at the University depends on the Board of Regents’ action on his four-year contract set to expire in 2014. || Lori Allen/The News
President Randy Dunn attends the annual Chamber Breakfast in February. Dunn’s fate at the University depends on the Board of Regents’ action on his four-year contract set to expire in 2014. || Lori Allen/The News

The Murray State News filed an inquiry complaint against the Murray State Board of Regents Monday. The newspaper is seeking an opinion from Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway in relation to the board’s intent to hold an executive session later this month.

In their December quarterly meeting, board members passed a resolution forming the Ad-Hoc Contract Review Committee for President Randy Dunn’s employment contract. In unofficial minutes from that meeting, the board outlined procedures by which it would follow on the road to an either renewed or denied contract before the deadline on June 30. One item among those procedures called for a special executive session meeting of the full board. Committee members are expected to use that meeting to present information collected on Dunn’s performance at the University, discuss the contract itself and receive further instructions from Regents.

The News filed documents with the attorney general’s office pertaining to an August 2010 opinion where Conway’s office found in favor a newspaper that filed because a local public school board was holding contract negotiations with its superintendent in executive session. In the inquiry complaint, The News is calling on the attorney general’s office to interpret Murray State’s Board of Regents similarly so the March 15 meeting can be held in public session.

Much of the meeting’s controversy surrounds the Kentucky Open Meetings Act, which prohibits government officials or agencies from closing meetings from the public unless they meet a certain set of criteria outlined in the law.

Kentucky Revised Statute 61.810(1)(f) lists open meeting exemptions, and among them, government officials are permitted to close doors when discussions may lead to “appointment, discipline or dismissal of an individual employee, member or student without restricting that employee’s, member’s or student’s right to a public hearing if requested.”

The exceptions specifically do not allow officials to hold closed meetings when discussion surrounds general topics that participating agents wish to keep private.

Additionally, the law stipulates that full board voting action must follow executive session – to prove the public agency’s executive session related to the voting topic.

Monday’s inquiry complaint cites these facts as well as the exiting attorney general opinion. The staff is unsure whether the board has any plans that would more clearly exempt the March meeting from the Open Meetings Act.

Dunn’s contract has been a hot topic for months since he was named a finalist for the presidency at Missouri State University in September of last year. He missed out on that top spot after he withdrew his candidacy only days later, saying the year’s Homecoming activities had shown him how much he wished to stay at Murray State. But still, Dunn said the board needed to act soon on his contract because he would need to begin more job searches should his four-year contract not be extended in June.

And then late last year the Florida Department of Education named Dunn a finalist for that position, too. He was interviewed but failed to make the final cut.

As reported, Dunn has said he believes the board should act soon on renewing his contract. Although it is currently slated to end in 2014, the wording stipulates that the board comes to a final conclusion on Dunn’s fate at the University by exactly one year prior. Faculty Senate and Staff Congress have both passed resolutions of support for Dunn, requesting that the board act fast on his contract before a university or organization chooses to extend a job offer to him.

Staff report.

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