NOVEMBER 2019    

Update: Legislative Subcommittee on Data Practices

The Legislative Coordinating Commission's Subcommittee on Data Practices has continued to meet into the fall. At its September and October meetings, the Subcommittee discussed legislation related to regulating the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) by law enforcement agencies and data practices issues surrounding remote access data storage. The Subcommittee voted to recommend legislation on drones for consideration by the full Legislature in its 2020 session. The Subcommittee will meet again on November 7, 2019, with an agenda to be determined. All of the Subcommittee's meeting materials, including agendas, draft legislation, testimony, and audio/video is available on the Subcommittee's Meeting Schedule page.

Free Webinars from the Data Practices Office!

The Data Practices Office is hosting a series of free lunchtime webinars on the Open Meeting Law (OML). You can find recordings of the first two installments on our YouTube page. The final OML webinar, discussing OML myths and recent advisory opinions, will be on December 3 at Noon. Registration is available on our website.

You'll see information about our next webinar series via GovDelivery in early 2020!

Recent Advisory Opinions

Traveling Data In Advisory Opinion 19-011, a City asked about the classification of data that the police department collected from a school district pursuant to a subpoena, as part of a criminal investigation. The District argued that the data were private personnel data and retained that classification in the hands of the City. The Commissioner concluded that the data “traveled” from the District to the City and, therefore, the data changed classifications (see Minnesota Statutes, section 13.03, subd. 4(a)). Due to the change in classification, the data were law enforcement data classified by section 13.82, in the hands of the City. Open Meeting Law In Advisory Opinion 19-012, a member of the public asked whether the conduct of a School Board violated the Open Meeting Law when a quorum of the School Board was present at a committee meeting. The Commissioner determined that a violation did occur. Despite the fact that the committee meeting may have been properly noticed, the School Board did not provide notice that a full School Board meeting would also take place.

Case Law Update

Barbara Pivec v. All Temporaries Midwest, Inc. et al., Case No. 19-mc-35 (D. Minn., Oct. 3, 2019).

The Plaintiff in this case subpoenaed documents from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) related to its investigation pursuant to the Minnesota Vulnerable Adults Act. MDH forwarded the subpoena to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS) to be processed pursuant to FOIA, as MDH conducted the investigation pursuant to federal law as well, per an agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). CMS did not provide the subpoenaed documents, and the Plaintiff filed a motion to compel MDH to provide the records.

DHHS intervened in the action, limited to the motion to compel and motion to quash, and removed these matters to United States District Court.

The Court stated that “the subpoenaed documents were collected pursuant to state law, and are therefore subject to the MGDPA[,]” despite arguments from DHHS that all data collected as part of a joint investigation are subject to federal law.  The Court indicated that MDH had an independent basis to conduct an investigation pursuant to the Minnesota Vulnerable Adults Act, and as a result, even without conducting a joint federal investigation, MDH would still have collected the subpoenaed records.

The Court denied the DHHS motion to quash and remanded the matter to the Hennepin County District Court.