Case Name: W. R. TOLAR, Petitioner, v. The SCHOOL BOARD OF LIBERTY COUNTY, Florida, a body corporate, Respondent
Court: Florida Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1981-03-26
Citations: 398 So. 2d 427
Docket Number: No. 55623
Parties: W. R. TOLAR, Petitioner, v. The SCHOOL BOARD OF LIBERTY COUNTY, Florida, a body corporate, Respondent.
Judges: BOYD, OVERTON, ENGLAND and Mc-DONALD, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 398
Pages: 427–432

Head Matter:
W. R. TOLAR, Petitioner, v. The SCHOOL BOARD OF LIBERTY COUNTY, Florida, a body corporate, Respondent.
No. 55623.
Supreme Court of Florida.
March 26, 1981.
Rehearing Denied June 11, 1981.
Robert J. Vossler, Tallahassee, for petitioner.
Clinton E. Foster, Panama City, for respondent.

Opinion:
ALDERMAN, Justice.
We have for review the decision of the District Court of Appeal, First District, in Tolar v. School Board of Liberty County, 363 So.2d 144 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978), which allegedly conflicts with Town of Palm Beach v. Gradison, 296 So.2d 473 (Fla.1974). The issue before us is whether section 286.-011(1), Florida Statutes (1975), commonly known as the "Sunshine Law," requires that otherwise proper formal action of a public body be invalidated because the subject matter of that formal public action was discussed at a prior unannounced meeting. The district court held that invalidation of the proper formal action was not required, and we agree.
Tolar was employed by the School Board as director of administration. On at least two occasions in November and December of 1976, the superintendent-elect of schools in Liberty County met privately with some or all of the School Board members to discuss ideas on reorganization. Included in these discussions was the topic of removal of Tolar and the abolition of his position. On January 4, 1977, at an open formal meeting, the School Board members voted to abolish the position of director of administration and to transfer Tolar to Bristol Elementary School. At this open meeting, Tolar was present and given full opportunity to express his views.
Tolar then sought injunctive relief pursuant to section 286.011(2), seeking to have the School Board's final action set aside as void because, he alleged, it violated the sunshine law.
Tolar's motion for summary judgment was denied, and he appealed to the district court, which affirmed. The district court acknowledged that the initial discussions in secret were a technical violation of the sunshine law, but, relying on our decision in Bassett v. Braddock, 262 So.2d 425 (Fla. 1972), it held that the subsequent Board action at a public meeting should not be disturbed because "[h]ere the Board members were at liberty to abolish the position of director of administration by voice vote at a public meeting. Tolar was given both notice of the meeting and an opportunity to express his views prior to the vote." Tolar v. The School Board of Liberty County, 363 So.2d at 146.
Section 286.011 provides that the meetings of the Board at which official acts are to be taken must be public. The intent of the act is to cover any gathering of the members of the Board where the members deal with some matter on which foreseeable action will be taken by the Board. Board of Public Instruction v. Doran, 224 So.2d 693 (Fla.1969). We agree with the district court that the discussions between the superintendent-elect and the Board members at her home and the home of a board member were violative of section 286.011. By the express terms of section 286.011, any resolution, rule, regulation, or formal action taken at these secret meetings would not be binding.
Tolar relies primarily on Town of Palm Beach v. Gradison to support his position that the Board's action in abolishing his position should be voided. In Gradison, the citizen's planning committee which conducted its activities at nonpublic meetings was instrumental in the formulation of the comprehensive zoning plan which was perfunctorily adopted as a zoning ordinance by the town council at a public meeting. We held that this citizen's planning committee, which was chosen by the town council at a nonpublic administrative meeting, reached the status of a board or commission that, to act legally, must comply with the sunshine law. We further found that zoning ordinance, which was a summary approval of the recommendation of the planning committed culminating from its numerous and detailed secret meetings, was void ab initio. The formal action in Gradison was merely the crystallization of secret decisions.
In Gradison, we said:
The statute should be construed so as to frustrate all evasive devices. This can be accomplished only by embracing the collective inquiry and discussion stages within the terms of the statute, as long as such inquiry and discussion is conducted by any committee or other authority appointed and established by a governmental agency, and relates to any matter which foreseeable action will be taken.
296 So.2d at 477. This holding does not mean, however, that public final action of the Board will always be void and incurable merely because the topic of the final public action was previously discussed at a private meeting. Here the School Board held a public meeting and permitted discussion on the abolishing of the position of director of administration and, then by voice vote at a public meeting, decided to abolish this position. This action taken in the sunshine will not now be voided.
Subsequent to Gradison, in Occidental Chemical Co. v. Mayo, 351 So.2d 336 (Fla. 1977), we were asked to determine whether the public service commission had violated the sunshine law in making its decision. A 22V2 page staff report was adopted essentially verbatim by the public service commission in its 27*/2 page report. Occidental argued that all meetings between the commissioners and their staff should be open to the public and that, since the agenda conference lasted only ninety minutes and resulted in adoption of the prepared staff proposal, the commissioners either met in private to reach a consensus or delegated their decision-making responsibility. We stated that the sunshine law required public meetings whenever the commission takes "official acts" and that it invalidates "formal action" taken in private. Upholding the commission's action, we declared that the sunshine law is satisfied if the commissioners reached a mutual decision on rate matters when they met together in public for their "formal action." We held that Town of Palm Beach v. Gradison was not controlling and distinguished it on the basis that the town council merely gave summary approval to the citizens planning committee's recommendations in a purely ceremonial public meeting.
The present case is likewise not controlled by Gradison because here the Board took independent, final action in the sunshine in voting to abolish the position. The Board's action was not merely a ceremonial acceptance of secret actions and was not merely a perfunctory ratification of secret decisions at a later meeting open to the public. Rather, the Board's action was a decision made in the "sunshine" to abolish Tolar's position. This case is more akin to Bassett v. Braddock wherein we were confronted on a cross-appeal with the question of whether the election of the chairman and vice-chairman of the Dade County School Board was valid under the particular circumstances. Although initially the election was held by secret ballot, it was later conducted by motion and vote in open meeting. We held that: "In this particular instance, any initial violation by secret written ballot was cured and rendered 'sunshine bright' by the corrective open, public vote which followed." 262 So.2d at 428-29.
Accordingly, having determined that the district court properly held that the Board's decision should not be disturbed, we approve its decision.
It is so ordered.
BOYD, OVERTON, ENGLAND and Mc-DONALD, JJ., concur.
ENGLAND, J., concurs with an opinion, with which OVERTON and McDONALD, JJ., concur.
ADKINS, J., dissents with an opinion, with which SUNDBERG, C. J., concurs.