The 2017 legislative session has
been described using terms such as different, unique, and unusual. The regular session
concluded shortly before midnight on May 22 and 75-hour special session
immediately followed. The Legislature officially adjourned until February 20,
2018. We did not see passage of a data practices omnibus bill this session, but
there were data practices and open meeting changes in various other bills. The
following highlights changes impacting data practices and open meetings. All
laws are effective August 1, 2017, unless otherwise noted.
Changes to the Data Practices Act (Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13)
Electronic access data – Minn. Stat. § 13.15, subd. 4: Allows
dissemination of data about access to a government entity’s computer to a
federal law enforcement agency to report unlawful intrusions into government
systems. Effective July 1, 2017. (2017
Session Law, Ch. 92, art. 1, sec. 4)
Education data – Minn. Stat. § 13.32, subd. 12: Allows county
personnel in the welfare system to access private education data with consent
from the parent/guardian. (2017
1st Special Session Law, Ch. 6, art. 7, sec. 1)
Student progress data – Minn. Stat. § 13.321, subd. 11: Adds data practices provisions related to student progress
data in sections 120B.35 and 120B.36. Certain provisions effective for the
2017-18 school year and others for 2018-19 school year for certain schools and
2019-20 for other schools. (2017
1st Special Session Law, Ch. 5, art. 2, sec. 19-20 and 2017
Session Law, Ch. 40, art. 2, sec. 1)
Real estate appraiser data – Minn. Stat. § 13.411, subd. 10:
Classifies certain data related to real estate appraiser disciplinary data as
private after 5 years from completion. Effective July 1, 2017. (2017
Session Law, Ch. 37, sec. 1)
Welfare data – Minn. Stat. § 13.46, subd. 1-2: Adds Native American
tribe programs, county public health agencies, county veteran services
agencies, and county housing agencies to the entities covered by the welfare
data section. Adds two entities that the welfare system can disclose data to
without consent: schools and county correctional agencies. Both disclosures
must be to coordinate services. Student data are limited to student name, date
of birth, gender, and address. Corrections data are limited to name, client
demographics, program, case status, and county worker information. (2017
1st Special Session Law, Ch. 6, art. 7, sec. 2-3)
Data sharing within counties – Minn. Stat. § 13.468: This section
was repealed. It limited data sharing among welfare, human services,
corrections, public health, and veteran’s service units within a county to the
following: the name, telephone number, and last known address of the data
subject; and the identification and contact information regarding personnel of
the county unit responsible for working with the individual or family. Other
data sharing required consent. (2017 1st Special Session Law,
Ch. 6, art. 7, sec. 36)
Income property assessment data – Minn. Stat. § 13.51,
subd. 2: Certain data collected by the state from individuals or
business entities concerning income properties are private or nonpublic data.
Effective May 31, 2017. (2017
1st Special Session Law, Ch. 1, art. 15, sec. 1)
Social security numbers in driver’s license records – Minn. Stat. § 13.69, subd. 1: Allows
the Department of Public Safety to share private social security numbers with
the judicial branch for purposes of debt collection. (2017
Session Law, Ch. 95, art. 2, sec. 2)
Citizenship voter registration data – Minn. Stat. § 13.6905, subd. 33: Amends
provisions related to the use of citizenship data reported to the secretary of
state. Effective July 1, 2017. (2017
Session Law, Ch. 92, art. 1, sec. 5)
Insurance fraud reporting – Minn. Stat. § 13.82, subd. 17: Requires the Commerce Fraud
Bureau to protect the identity of an individual that reports insurance fraud. (2017
Session Law, Ch. 98, sec. 1)
Court services data – Minn. Stat. § 13.84, subd. 5: Allows disclosure of private
or confidential court services data to county personnel within the welfare
system. (2017
1st Special Session Law, Ch. 6, art. 7, sec. 4)
Felony conviction voter registration data – Minn. Stat. § 13.841, subd. 3: Amends
provisions related to felony conviction data reported to the secretary of
state. Effective July 1, 2017. (2017
Session Law, Ch. 92, art. 1, sec. 6)
Felony offender voter registration data – Minn. Stat. § 13.851, subd. 10: Amends
provisions related to the use of felony offender data made available to the
secretary of state. Effective July 1, 2017. (2017
Session Law, Ch. 92, art. 1, sec. 7)
Other Data Practices Changes
Health care payment data: Classifies data on an enrollee or health carrier as private
or nonpublic data, except that the total reimbursement requested by a health
carrier and the total state payment to the health carrier are public data. The
data must be destroyed by June 30, 2018, or upon completion of audits,
whichever is later. (2017
Session Law, Ch. 2)
Data Practices and Privacy Commission – Minn. Stat. § 3.8843: Extends
the sunset date on the Legislative Commission on Data Practices and Personal
Data Privacy to June 30, 2019. Effective May 31, 2017. (2017
1st Special Session Law, Ch. 4, art. 2, sec. 2)
Education data security – Minn. Stat. 136A.646: Requires primary
use of additional security funds to destroy any private educational data in the
event of a higher educational school closure. (2017
Session Law, Ch. 89, art. 3, sec. 5)
Federal REAL ID requirements – Minn. Stat. Ch. 171: Section 5
requires notification of a federal change related to data collection, storage,
dissemination. Sec. 10 requires information on the Department of public
Safety’s website related to data sharing. Sec. 19-22 details requirements
related to audit data, records retention, data dissemination, and protection of
firearms data. Most provisions are effective May 19, 2017. (2017
Session Law, Ch. 76)
Ignition interlock program data – Minn. Stat. § 171.306: The
Commissioner of Public Safety cannot require ignition interlock DWI program devices
to use or enable location tracking capabilities (i.e. GPS) without a court
order. Effective May 24, 2017. (2017
Session Law. Ch. 83, art. 1, sec. 1-4)
Election judge data – Minn. Stat. § 204B.21, subd. 3: Allows
sharing of an electron judge’s major political party affiliation, or a
statement that the judge does not affiliate with a major political party, with
other election judges assigned to the precinct at the same election, to verify
compliance with party balance requirements. (2017
Session Law, Ch. 92, art. 1, sec. 15)
Department of Corrections (DOC) data – Minn. Stat. § 241.065, subd. 2: Classifies
case planning data in the statewide supervision system as private data. The
data are accessible to certain DOC staff for purposes of monitoring and
enforcing conditional release. (2017
Session Law. Ch. 83, art. 1, sec. 5)
Harassment restraining order data – Minn. Stat. § 299C.46, subd. 6:
Classifies harassment restraining order data as private data. (2017
Session Law, Ch. 95, art. 3, sec. 11)
Ombudsman for Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities
data access – Minn. Stat. § 245.94, subd. 1: Allows the Ombudsman for Mental Health
and Developmental Disabilities to access private data on individuals
served by the Minnesota sex offender program. Effective May 31, 2017. (2017
1st Special Session Law, Ch. 6, art. 8, sec. 10)
Changes Impacting Open Meetings
Child Support Task Force – Minn. Stat. § 518A.79, subd. 3a: Meetings of the task force are subject to the Open Meeting Law
(Minn. Stat. Ch. 13D). Effective January 1, 2018. (2017
1st Special Session Law, Ch. 4, art. 2, sec. 48)
Alzheimer's Disease Working Group: Meetings of the working group must be open to public, but the
group is not specifically subject to the Open Meeting Law. The group
expires June 30, 2019, or the day after submitting its required report,
whichever is earlier. (2017
1st Special Session Law, Ch. 6, art. 3, sec. 48)
Palliative Care Advisory Council – Minn. Stat. § 144.059: Meetings of the
advisory council are subject to the Open Meeting Law. The advisory council
sunsets on January 1, 2025. (2017
1st Special Session Law, Ch. 6, art. 10, sec. 57)
Home Care Nursing Shortage Working Group: Meetings of the working group must be open to the public, but the
group is not specifically subject to the Open Meeting Law. The group
expires on January 16, 2018, or the day after submitting its required report,
whichever is earlier. (2017
1st Special Session Law, Ch. 6, art. 10, sec. 143)
Employee Insurance Plan Data
In Advisory Opinion 17-004, a city which operates a self-insured group health plan for its employees asked whether data collected by the third-party administrator were government data, how they would be classified, and whether the administrator was required give a Tennessen notice prior to collecting the data. The Commissioner opined that because the third-party
administrator was collecting government data from the employees, the data were classified as private (Minnesota Statutes, section 13.43 subd. 4), and because the administrator is required to comply with the
Data Practices Act as if it were a government entity (Minnesota Statutes,
section 13.05, subdivision 11), it was required to provide a Tennessen notice prior to
collecting the data.
Official Action by Quorum Constitutes Meeting
In Advisory Opinion 17-005, a member of the public asked whether a school board violated the Open Meeting Law, when a quorum of members sent a letter to another entity. The Commissioner opined that the Board did not comply with the law because the quorum took official action (i.e., agreeing to the contents of the letter and sending the letter) outside of a public meeting. The Commissioner also addressed the Board’s arguments that written communication does not constitute a meeting.
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