Fines and forfeituresīut the state Supreme Court blew a whopping hole in the law last month in a case entitled Funk v. There are, to be sure, a number exceptions to the requirement of openness, but they are confined to explicit classifications of undertakings where secrecy is reasonably necessary to transact public business, such as personnel review disciplinary matters, strategies for labor negotiations, considerations of real estate acquisitions, internal security measures, and legal advice from counsel on pending or imminent litigation matters, among others. The Open Meeting measure revolves around the principle that meetings of public bodies, supported by taxpayer funds, are presumed to be open to the public. The Open Meeting statute, along with its documentary counterpart, the Government Data Practices Act, enacted 17 years later, constitute the stellar aspects of the state’s “Sunshine” laws aimed at promoting accountability of public officials, the decisions they make, and actions they take. The measure, which has been on the books in one form or another for 61 years, requires most meetings of local and county governmental bodies in Minnesota to be open to the public, as well as other features that promote access by the citizenry, such as advance notice of sessions of public bodies and recordation of them. Their dismay stems from a recent ruling of the Minnesota Supreme Court that makes the state Open Meeting Law more opaque and harder to enforce. One example I was told by the vendor was a stone countertop in a pontoon boat, where a normal slab would be too heavy for the boat.Advocates of transparency in government in Minnesota are in a bit of a funk these days. But these panels allow for the installation of legitimate stone surfaces (and not just a laminate print) in situation which heavier stone panels are not feasible. The nature of these composite panels expresses stone in new unprecedented ways, particularly since the stone can be lit up as any color. Another benefit it that the thin layer uses less material than traditional slabs. This means easier transportation, as the manufacturer claims that these panels can be carried by 2 workers, and have a broad range of application ranging from ceilings to countertops to wall panels and furniture. Light shines through the white or lighter colored sections of the stone, isolating the veins or darker areas of the stone.Ĭompared to slabs of stones normally used in construction, the primary benefit behind this two layer composition is significantly less weight. These two layers combine to make panels that are translucent, meaning LED lights can be placed behind. These are then reinforced by a thin back layer, consisting of materials such as aluminum polymer composite, fiberglass, honeycomb PVB, or glass. Thin panels of stone such as granite, marble, travertine and onyx are cut to be no more than a quarter inch thick, as slabs are normally between ¾ to 1¼ inches thick. The vendor was displaying a product known as Designer Stone Panels, and they were thin layers of stone and backlit by LEDs. Colorful lights emanated though what appeared to be slabs of solid stone. The other day at the AIA Minnesota conference, I came across an interesting spectacle from an unlikely source.
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