University violates spirit if not letter of open meeting law

Back in November MPR filed a request under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act for documents related to the scheduling of meetings, interviews, and meals between the regents and Kaler. The documents show that the regents had a "social dinner" with him on November 17th. Social dinners are not covered by the state's open meeting law. As long as they don't talk business, they are kosher. (But how would we know that they didn't talk business?) Additional private meetings were held the day before Kaler was hired. The regents again skirted the open meeting law by scheduling a series of three one hour meetings, each with three regents in attendance. As long as the meetings don’t contain a majority of members, they comply with the letter of the law, even though when combined they do. Read more here.