The Indiana Publisher

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Contact us at 910-323-0349 for more informa on on this money-making sales program! The following questions were submitted by the Daily Journal (Franklin), Spencer Evening World, The Brookville American and The Brookville Democrat: Are the dates that a city employee is off work due to FMLA a public record? I ask because there is a chance a city employee who was on FMLA was doing work as a contractor in a downtown building during his leave, and was paid taxpayer dollars for the work because the building was receiving government incentives. I've requested the contractor payment and invoices, but I wanted to know what I was allowed to have regarding FMLA before I started. In general, personnel files of public employees may be kept confidential at the dis- cretion of the public agency, except for certain information that must be released. I don't see where the dates of the FMLA absence would be something that the government unit would be required to release. The question is whether there's another document that would be outside the personnel file where the information is captured. A department head memo to someone letting them know that Joe Employee will not be available for the next three weeks, for example, for purposes of scheduling or reassigning duties to pick up the slack while Joe is gone. Neither note would be part of Joe's personnel file, and should be a disclosable document. Can you give me a syn- opsis or reference to law that specifically refers to school boards – and what discussion is required, etc. in regard to approving motions? The board here merely addresses the actual agenda item then asks for a motion, and it is approved or (rarely) not. If I am Joe Citizen and I decide for the heck of it to see how my school board operates, and what decisions they made that will affect my child or spending of my tax dollars, I would have no idea from the action taken in the 30-45 minutes it took to plow through the 22 items on the agenda. I have noticed this is true of the three boards I've covered since moving to Indiana. Richland Bean-Blossom does at least provide its local paper with a link to the entire board packet PDF beforehand so you can follow along. What is the law? Based on your example, it would appear that the dis- cussion of agenda items is occurring prior to the board meeting. Whether or not it's a viola- tion of the Open Door Law would depend upon how it is occurring. Even if it's not a violation of the law, I'd say they are violating the spirit of the law, which calls for the goal "that the people may be fully informed." These boards could be conversing through emails, working through any questions or concerns with agenda items in that fashion, so that when it comes to the public meeting, they have no need for debate or explana- tion – just the vote. This electronic discussion would not be a violation of the Open Door Law because there is no improper meeting, but there are things you can do to keep an eye on them: 1. Routinely ask for a copy of the board packet prepared for the school board. It should be easy for the administrative assistant to make 8 copies instead of 7 or add your name to the group list if it's electronic. This would give you the opportunity to ask the superintendent or board members questions about what's on the agenda prior to meeting day. 2. Request copies of emails between the superintendent and the board members during the week before the board packet is distributed or after to see the electronic debate that may be occurring. I'm assuming the superin- tendent's email account used would be through the school and not a private account. Whether the school board members use a school district email address or their own, may be problem- atic if they aren't copying the superin- tendent. If there isn't any email traffic indi- cating that's how the sort through everything, it would indicate one of three options: 1. They're doing it through emails that aren't part of the school district email accounts, which would be odd for the superintendent and raise the question why unless they're trying to avoid the Access to Public Records Act; 2. They don't really discuss any- thing, which isn't good because they wouldn't be fulfilling the designed role of a school board, but instead merely serving as a rubber stamp for the superintendent; or 3. They're handling the discussion through either an announced or unan- nounced executive session, which either way would be in violation of the Open Door Law. Do they have execu- tive sessions every month prior to the public meeting? If so, you need to check the notices to see what they are stating as the subject matter of the executive sessions. There may be clues in the notice that would indicate it's just a pretext to holding secret discus- sions, which are then followed up by the public session, which only consists of the final vote on items. On New Year's Eve there was a shooting in the Laurel area. According to rumor, a Laurel Police Department officer shot a female in the foot during a party. She was air- lifted to a hospital. Laurel Police Department investigated the shooting. By Indiana law, what information do they have to release on the incident? Within 24-hours after the call for assistance was received by the police, the law enforcement agency should have created a "daily log or report" record as required under the Access to Public Records Act at IC 5-14-3-5(c). That record would include the time, substance and location of the incident; time and who responded to the call; since it was a possible crime, the time, date and location of the shooting; name and age of the victim; factual circumstances surrounding the shoot- ing; and description of any injuries, property, or weapons involved. A A Q Q HSPA Legal Hotline A quick Google search of "free sales training programs" returns 6,240,000 results. Of course, many of those training options are not neces- sarily free or even industry appro- priate. The point is that there are resources available for a manager or company if they are willing to devote the time. Specific to the newspaper industry, there are several excellent free resourc- es for sales training. Many media associations, including the Hoosier State Press Association, have resources online to help in this process. If you're a member of the Local Media Association, check out their archives of training at http://www. localmedia.org/archived-webinar- access/. If you're a member of the Hoosier State Press Association, consider sign- ing up for the weekly training email from Sales Radio. Find more informa- tion at http://www.hspa.com/sales- training-for-hspa-members/. As a manager, you don't have to go it alone. No money to pay for train- ing? Use one of the resources available online. Better yet, have one of your more experienced reps teach a training session on a topic where they excel. It is a way for you to acknowledge their skills and help to make them a leader. There are several books that you can either buy or get at the local library on sales training and training games. Find something you like and adapt it to your team's strengths and needs. With limited budgets and resources, you can still find ways to enrich your sales team. Don't be defined by your past. Become the mentor and leader you are supposed to be for your sales team. Pete Van Baalen, general manager for Fort Wayne Newspapers, is a member of the HSPA board of directors and presi- dent of Indiana Newspaper Advertising Executives Association. Q A Low-budget Continued from Page 1

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