Opinion ID: 2630418
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Wyoming Public Meetings Act

Text: [¶ 8] First, Mr. Decker contends that the Medical Commission violated his rights to due process of law when the Medical Commission hearing panel assigned to adjudicate his case did not deliberate its decision in a public meeting. Mr. Decker claims this is a violation of the Public Meetings Act, Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 16-4-401 through 16-4-408, and, hence, the review panel's decision is void. The review panel responded to that contention in detail in its Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law. The district court gave it short shrift in its order affirming the review panel's denial of benefits. Mr. Decker gave it short shrift in his brief in this appeal. However, if his argument is correct with respect to a violation of the Public Meetings Act, then the decision is void, and new proceedings must be ordered. [¶ 9] For several reasons, we disagree with Mr. Decker's assertion that the hearing panel's order is void because it did not comply with Wyoming's Public Meetings Act (PMA). The PMA was enacted in 1973 and has been modified only slightly over the years. In the interests of clarity, the provisions of that act are set out below: § 16-4-401. Statement of purpose. The agencies of Wyoming exist to conduct public business. Certain deliberations and actions shall be taken openly as provided in this act. § 16-4-402. Definitions. (a) As used in this act: (i) Action means the transaction of official business of an agency including a collective decision of a governing body, a collective commitment or promise by a governing body to make a positive or negative decision, or an actual vote by a governing body upon a motion, proposal, resolution, regulation, rule, order or ordinance; (ii) Agency means any authority, bureau, board, commission, committee, or subagency of the state, a county, a municipality or other political subdivision which is created by or pursuant to the Wyoming constitution, statute or ordinance, other than the state legislature and the judiciary; (iii) Meeting means an assembly of at least a quorum of the governing body of an agency which has been called by proper authority of the agency for the purpose of discussion, deliberation, presentation of information or taking action regarding public business; (iv) This act means W.S. 16-4-401 through 16-4-408. § 16-4-403. Meetings to be open; participation by public; minutes. (a) All meetings of the governing body of an agency are public meetings, open to the public at all times, except as otherwise provided. No action of a governing body of an agency shall be taken except during a public meeting following notice of the meeting in accordance with this act. Action taken at a meeting not in conformity with this act is null and void and not merely voidable. (b) A member of the public is not required as a condition of attendance at any meeting to register his name, to supply information, to complete a questionnaire, or fulfill any other condition precedent to his attendance. A person seeking recognition at the meeting may be required to give his name and affiliation. (c) Minutes of a meeting: (i) Are required to be recorded but not published from meetings when no action is taken by the governing body; (ii) Are not required to be recorded or published for day-to-day administrative activities of an agency. § 16-4-404. Types of meetings; notice; recess. (a) In the absence of a statutory requirement, the governing body of an agency shall provide by ordinance, resolution, bylaws or rule for holding regular meetings unless the agency's normal business does not require regular meetings in which case the agency shall provide notice of its next meeting to any person who requests notice. A request for notice may be made for all future meetings of an agency. (b) Special meetings may be called by the presiding officer of a governing body by giving notice of the meeting to each member of the governing body and to each newspaper of general circulation, radio or television station requesting the notice. The notice shall specify the time and place of the special meeting and the business to be transacted. No other business shall be considered at a special meeting. (c) The governing body of an agency may recess any regular, special, or recessed regular or special meeting to a place and at a time specified in an order of recess. A copy of the order of recess shall be conspicuously posted on or near the door of the place where the meeting or recessed meeting was held. (d) The governing body of an agency may hold an emergency meeting on matters of serious immediate concern to take temporary action without notice. Reasonable effort shall be made to offer public notice. All action taken at an emergency meeting is of a temporary nature and in order to become permanent shall be reconsidered and acted upon at an open public meeting within forty-eight (48) hours. (e) Day-to-day administrative activities of an agency shall not be subject to the notice requirements of this section. § 16-4-405. Executive sessions. (a) A governing body of an agency may hold executive sessions not open to the public: (i) With the attorney general, county attorney, district attorney, city attorney, sheriff, chief of police or their respective deputies, or other officers of the law, on matters posing a threat to the security of public or private property, or a threat to the public's right of access; (ii) To consider the appointment, employment, right to practice or dismissal of a public officer, professional person or employee, or to hear complaints or charges brought against an employee, professional person or officer, unless the employee, professional person or officer requests a public hearing. The governing body may exclude from any public or private hearing during the examination of a witness, any or all other witnesses in the matter being investigated. Following the hearing or executive session, the governing body may deliberate on its decision in executive sessions; (iii) On matters concerning litigation to which the governing body is a party or proposed litigation to which the governing body may be a party; (iv) On matters of national security; (v) When the agency is a licensing agency while preparing, administering or grading examinations; (vi) When considering and acting upon the determination of the term, parole or release of an individual from a correctional or penal institution; (vii) To consider the selection of a site or the purchase of real estate when the publicity regarding the consideration would cause a likelihood of an increase in price; (viii) To consider acceptance of gifts, donations and bequests which the donor has requested in writing be kept confidential; (ix) To consider or receive any information classified as confidential by law; (x) To consider accepting or tendering offers concerning wages, salaries, benefits and terms of employment during all negotiations; (xi) To consider suspensions, expulsions or other disciplinary action in connection with any student as provided by law. (b) Minutes shall be maintained of any executive session. Except for those parts of minutes of an executive session reflecting a members' objection to the executive session as being in violation of this act, minutes and proceedings of executive sessions shall be confidential and produced only in response to a valid court order. (c) Unless a different procedure or vote is otherwise specified by law, an executive session may be held only pursuant to a motion that is duly seconded and carried by majority vote of the members of the governing body in attendance when the motion is made. § 16-4-406. Disruption of public meetings. If any public meeting is willfully disrupted by a person or group of persons so as to render the orderly conduct of the meeting unfeasible, and order cannot be restored by the removal of the person or persons who are willfully interrupting the meeting, the governing body of an agency may recess the meeting and reconvene at another location. Only matters appearing on the agenda may be acted upon in a meeting recessed to another location. A governing body of an agency shall establish procedures for readmitting an individual or individuals not responsible for disturbing the conduct of a meeting. Duly accredited members of the press or other news media except those who participated in a disturbance shall be allowed to attend any meeting permitted by this section. § 16-4-407. Conflict of law. If the provisions of this act conflict with any other statute, the provisions of this act shall control. § 16-4-408. Penalty. (a) Any member or members of an agency who knowingly and willfully takes an action in violation of or conspires to take an action in violation of this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. Any member of the governing body of an agency who attends or remains at a meeting where an action is taken knowing that the action is in violation of this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor unless minutes were taken during the meeting and the parts thereof recording the member's objections are made public or at the next regular public meeting the member objects to the meeting where the violation occurred and asks that the objection be recorded in the minutes. Either misdemeanor violation under this subsection is punishable upon conviction by a fine of not more than seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00). (b) If any action is prohibited both by this act and any provision of title 6, the provisions of this act shall not apply and the provisions of title 6 shall apply. Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 16-4-401 through 16-4-408 (LexisNexis 2007) (emphasis added). [¶ 10] Prior to 1986, disputed worker's compensation cases were adjudicated in the district courts. In 1986, the Wyoming Legislature changed that process to the use of independent hearing officers, with appeals available to both the district courts and the Supreme Court. 1986 Wyo. Sess. Laws (Special Session) ch. 3. This change was formalized in 1992, when the office of administrative hearings was created. 1992 Wyo. Sess. Laws ch. 30. [¶ 11] In 1993, in recognition of an apparent need for a specialized, quasi-judicial hearing body to consider worker's compensation cases that required hearing officers with medical expertise, the Wyoming Legislature created the Medical Commission: § 27-14-616. Medical commission; hearing panels; creation; membership; duties; rulemaking. (a) The medical commission is created to consist of eleven (11) health care providers appointed by the governor as follows: (i) Seven (7) licensed physicians appointed from a list of not less than fourteen (14) nominees submitted by the Wyoming Medical Society; (ii) Four (4) health care providers appointed from a list of not less than eight (8) nominees developed and submitted by appropriate health care provider groups selected by the director. (b) One (1) member shall be elected by commission members as chairman and one (1) as vice-chairman. The division shall designate an employee to serve as executive secretary of the commission or contract with an individual to provide executive secretary services to the commission. The governor may appoint no more than eleven (11) additional health care providers as associate members of the commission whose function is limited to serving as members of individual medical hearing panels. Except for initial members, the terms of commission members and associate members shall be three (3) years. Three (3) members of the initial commission and three (3) initial associate members shall be appointed to a one (1) year term and four (4) initial commission members and four (4) initial associate members shall be appointed to a two (2) year term. The duties of the commission shall be: (i) To promulgate rules and regulations, with the approval of the director of the department, declaring particular medical, hospital or other health care procedures either acceptable or not necessary in the treatment of injuries or particular classes of injuries and therefore either compensable or not compensable under this act or expanding or limiting the compensability of such procedures under this act; (ii) To promulgate rules and regulations, with the approval of the director of the department, establishing criteria for certification of temporary total disability by health care providers and setting forth the types of injuries for which particular health care providers may certify temporary total disability pursuant to W.S. XX-XX-XXX(g); (iii) To advise the division, upon request, on the usefulness of medical cost containment measures; and (iv) To furnish three (3) members of the commission to serve as a medical hearing panel to hear cases referred for hearing. The division shall refer medically contested cases to the commission for hearing by a medical hearing panel. The decision to refer a contested case to the office of administrative hearings or a medical hearing panel established under this section shall not be subject to further administrative review. Following referral by the division, the hearing examiner or medical hearing panel shall have jurisdiction to hear and decide all issues related to the written notice of objection filed pursuant to W.S. XX-XX-XXX(k). Different medical hearing panels with different membership may be selected to hear different cases, but a panel may hear more than one (1) case. Individual medical hearing panels shall be selected by the executive secretary under the supervision and guidance of the chairman of the medical commission. At least one (1) member of each panel shall be a physician. One (1) member shall be designated by the executive secretary to serve as chairman of the panel. When hearing a medically contested case, the panel shall serve as the hearing examiner and shall have exclusive jurisdiction to make the final administrative determination of the validity and amount of compensation payable under this act. For cases referred to the medical commission as small claims hearings under W.S. XX-XX-XXX(b), the medical hearing panel may consist of one (1) physician who shall serve as the hearing examiner and shall have exclusive jurisdiction to make the final administrative determination of the validity and amount of compensation payable under this act. (c) The members of the commission and of medical hearing panels when serving shall be immune from liability and shall be defended by the attorney general if sued and indemnified against loss from legal action in the same manner as state employees. (d) The division shall establish a fee schedule for the compensation of members of the medical commission and medical hearing panels for their professional services to be paid from the worker's compensation account. (e) Upon agreement of all parties to a case, the hearing examiner in a contested case under this chapter may transfer a medically contested case to a medical hearing panel or may seek the advice of the medical commission on specified medical issues in the contested case. The advice shall be in writing and shall become part of the record of the case. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 27-14-616 (LexisNexis 2007). [¶ 12] Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 27-14-602(b)(ii) (LexisNexis 2007) (emphasis added) provides: (ii) All other requests for hearing not specified under paragraph (b)(i) of this section shall be conducted as a contested case in accordance with procedures of the Wyoming Administrative Procedure Act and the Wyoming Rules of Civil Procedure as applicable under rules of the office of administrative hearings. The hearing examiner designated by the office of administrative hearings shall render a decision in a contested case within thirty (30) days after the close of the record. If the contested case is heard by the hearing panel created pursuant to W.S. XX-XX-XXX(b)(iv), the panel shall render a decision within forty-five (45) days after the close of the record; .... [¶ 13] All other worker's compensation case disputes are resolved before hearing examiners, which were created in 1992, as established in the following legislation: § 9-2-2201. Office created; appointment of director and hearing examiners. (a) The office of administrative hearings is created as a separate operating agency pursuant to W.S. 9-2-1704(d). (b) The governor, with the advice and consent of the senate, shall appoint a director of the office who shall serve as the administrative head of the office and as chief hearing examiner. Unless sooner removed, the director's term of appointment expires at the end of the term of office of the governor during which he was appointed. The director serves at the pleasure of the governor and may be removed by him as provided by W.S. 9-1-202. The director shall be a member in good standing of the Wyoming state bar. (c) The director may appoint additional hearing examiners who are members in good standing of the Wyoming state bar to serve either full or part time as necessary throughout the state. Hearing examiners serve at the pleasure of the director and may be removed by him at any time without cause. § 9-2-2202. Duties and function of office. (a) The office of administrative hearings is the successor agency to the office of independent hearing examiners created by W.S. XX-XX-XXX and the office of hearing examiners created by W.S. 31-7-105. Effective July 1, 1992: (i) There is transferred to the office of administrative hearings all positions, personnel, property and appropriated funds of the office of independent hearing examiners and the office of hearing examiners; (ii) The office of administrative hearings shall assume all duties and responsibilities and exercise all authority of the office of independent hearing examiners and the office of hearing examiners set out in title 27, chapter 14 and title 31, chapters 6, 7, 9 and 17 of the Wyoming statutes. (b) In addition to conducting hearings pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, the office of administrative hearings may, if requested, provide hearing services for any other state agency, provided: (i) Hearing services shall be provided to other agencies subject to available resources; (ii) The cost of the hearing services as determined by the director of the office of administrative hearings shall be paid by the requesting agency to the office of administrative hearings; (iii) Hearings will be conducted in an impartial manner pursuant to the Wyoming Administrative Procedure Act, applicable provisions of the Wyoming Rules of Civil Procedure and any rules for the conduct of contested cases adopted by the director of the office of administrative hearings which shall take precedence over hearing rules promulgated by the requesting agency. In the case of personnel hearings conducted pursuant to W.S. 9-2-1019, the state personnel rules shall govern the conduct of the hearings; (iv) Hearings may be held in any area of the state giving consideration to the resources of the office of administrative hearings and the convenience of the parties. Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 9-2-2201 and 9-2-2202 (LexisNexis 2007). [¶ 14] Hearing examiners also perform quasi-judicial functions. Whether a case is before a hearing examiner or before a hearing panel assigned by the Medical Commission for a particular case, the trial-type proceedings are about the same. All testimonial evidence and all trial proceedings are taken down verbatim by a court reporter. All documentary evidence is included in the record. The hearing examiner or Medical Commission hearing panel is required to issue a detailed order which contains a complete recitation of the finding of facts it made and the conclusions of law it reached. See, e.g., Decker I, ¶¶ 25-28, 124 P.3d at 694-95. [¶ 15] Some of our most important principles of statutory construction apply to the analysis of this issue: In interpreting statutes, our primary consideration is to determine the legislature's intent. All statutes must be construed in pari materia and, in ascertaining the meaning of a given law, all statutes relating to the same subject or having the same general purpose must be considered and construed in harmony. Statutory construction is a question of law, so our standard of review is de novo. We endeavor to interpret statutes in accordance with the legislature's intent. We begin by making an inquiry respecting the ordinary and obvious meaning of the words employed according to their arrangement and connection. We construe the statute as a whole, giving effect to every word, clause, and sentence, and we construe all parts of the statute in pari materia. When a statute is sufficiently clear and unambiguous, we give effect to the plain and ordinary meaning of the words and do not resort to the rules of statutory construction. BP America Prod. Co. v. Dep't of Revenue, State of Wyo., 2005 WY 60, ¶ 15, 112 P.3d 596, 604 (Wyo.2005). [¶ 16] Moreover: We presume that statutes are enacted by the legislature with full knowledge of existing law, so we construe statutes in harmony with existing law, particularly other statutes relating to the same subject or having the same purpose.... Statutes must be construed so that no portion is rendered meaningless.... Interpretation should not produce an absurd result.... We are guided by the full text of the statute, paying attention to its internal structure and the functional relation between the parts and the whole.... Each word of a statute is to be afforded meaning, with none rendered superfluous.... Further, the meaning afforded to a word should be that word's standard popular meaning unless another meaning is clearly intended.... If the meaning of a word is unclear, it should be afforded the meaning that best accomplishes the statute's purpose.... We presume that the legislature acts intentionally when it uses particular language in one statute, but not in another.... If two sections of legislation appear to conflict, they should be given a reading that gives them both effect. Hede v. Gilstrap, 2005 WY 24, ¶ 6, 107 P.3d 158, 163 (Wyo.2005) (quoting Rodriguez v. Casey, 2002 WY 111, ¶¶ 9-10, 50 P.3d 323, 326-27 (Wyo.2002)). [¶ 17] There are many bases upon which this Court might conclude that the Medical Commission hearing panels are not required by the PMA to permit parties or the public to sit in on their deliberations. To begin with, a Medical Commission hearing panel is not an agency as that word is used in the PMA. An agency is defined as any authority, bureau, board, commission, committee, or subagency of the state, a county, a municipality or other political subdivision which is created by or pursuant to the Wyoming constitution, statute or ordinance, other than the state legislature and the judiciary. § 16-4-402(ii). Individual medical hearing panels do not fit within this definition. They are impermanent bodies not created by the legislature. Certainly the legislature has provided for their potential existence, but their actual existence is governed solely by the Medical Commission. [¶ 18] The legislature created the Medical Commission and empowered it to assemble medical hearing panels solely as necessary to hear medically contested worker's compensation cases. Different medical hearing panels with different membership may be selected to hear different cases. § 27-14-616(b)(iv). Indeed, the Medical Commission attempts to individualize panels by appointing commission members with expertise relevant to the circumstances of the case being heard. Wyo. Dep't of Employment, Workers' Compensation, Medical Commission Rules & Regulations, ch. 6, § 1(b) (Feb. 14, 2003). [1] As a consequence, potentially, multiple medical hearing panels may exist at any given time. Equally, it is possible that there might be a time when no medical hearing panel exists because there are no outstanding medically contested cases to be heard. A medical hearing panel, being a transitory body, and existing and operating exclusively under the auspices of the Medical Commission, does not fall within the definition of agency as used in the PMA. [¶ 19] Moreover, even if a Medical Commission hearing panel were to be considered an agency, a decision by the panel is not an action as that word is used in the PMA. A hearing panel is not a governing body as that phrase is used in the PMA. A quasi-judicial hearing conducted by a hearing panel is not a meeting as that word is used in the PMA. Finally, as noted above, a hearing panel may deliberate for forty-five days and then its decision must be forthcoming in written form. It makes no sense to read the PMA so as to require a hearing panel to curtail its deliberative process to a few minutes at a quasi-judicial hearing, when the statutes that created those hearing panels contemplated that they may deliberate over a period of forty-five days after pondering the often voluminous and very technical medical testimony and records that make up the evidence at such quasi-judicial hearings. Because a Medical Commission hearing panel is not an agency and its decisions are not actions as defined by the PMA, the hearing panels are not subject to the strictures of the PMA.