The Village of Hortonville will hold a special Village Board meeting Monday at 6 p.m. at the Opera House on West Main St. According to the agenda that was issued for the meeting, it will be called to order, before a motion to move into closed session to confer with legal counsel. The board will return and act on the matter discussed in the closed session.
At the village board meeting held last Thursday, the village adopted a new ordinance that would impose fines of $100 – $500 for the first offense of leaking closed session information. A second violation would warrant fines between $500 – $1,000.
This has been a debated topic since it was first brought to the village board in December, on the heels of an investigation into Police Chief Michael Sullivan, who was accused of disseminating private information.
Many municipalities have recently enacted ordinances such as these because previously while prohibited, someone leaking closed session information wasn’t liable to be fined.
At the most recent Shawano Common Council meeting, the council amended the city ordinance, which now fines the revealing of confidential information to the tune of $187 for a first offense, and a second offense totaling $439.
The agenda for the board meeting in Hortonville is posted below.