1.08 Records Open to Public and Exceptions

1. Any citizen of the state shall, at all times, have access to and be permitted to take copies of any or all the records, books, and papers of the Board except as described below or as otherwise prescribed by law or by action of the Board of Curators.
   
   
2. Designation of Closed Records
   
   The following records and records relating to the following subjects, whether currently existing or hereafter created or received, are hereby designated as closed records:

A. Legal actions, causes of action or litigation and any confidential or privileged communications with representatives and attorneys. However, any minutes, vote or settlement agreement relating to legal actions, causes of action or litigation involving the Curators of Lincoln University of Missouri or any agent or entity representing its interests or acting on its behalf or with its authority, including any insurance company acting on behalf of the University as its insured, shall be made public upon final disposition of the matter voted upon or upon the signing by the parties of the settlement agreement, unless, prior to final disposition, the settlement agreement is ordered closed by a court after a written finding that the adverse impact to a plaintiff or plaintiffs to the action clearly outweighs the public policy considerations of Section 610.011. RSMo; however, the amount of any moneys paid for settlement shall be disclosed, provided, however, in matters involving the exercise of the power of eminent domain, the vote shall be announced or become public immediately following the action on the motion to authorize institution of such a legal action. Legal work product shall be considered a closed record.

B. Leasing, purchase or sale of real estate where public knowledge of the transaction might adversely affect the legal consideration thereof. However, any minutes, vote or public record approving a contract relating to the leasing, purchase or sale of real estate shall be made public upon execution of the lease, purchase or sale of the real estate.

C. Hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting of particular employees when personal information about the employee is discussed or recorded. However, any vote on a final decision, when taken, to hire, fire, promote or discipline an employee shall be made available with a record of how each member voted to the public within seventy-two (72) hours of the close of the meeting where such action occurs; provided, however, that any employee so affected shall be entitled to prompt notice of such decision during the seventy-two (72) hour period before such decision is made available to the public. As used in this subdivision, the term "personal information" means information relating to the performance or merit of individual employees.

D. The state militia or National Guard or any part thereof.

E. Non-judicial mental or physical health proceedings involving identifiable persons, including medical, psychiatric, psychological, or alcoholism or drug dependency diagnosis or treatment.

F. Scholastic probation, expulsion, or graduation of identifiable individuals, including records of individual test or examination scores; however, personally identifiable student records maintained by public educational institutions shall be open for inspection by the parents, guardian or other custodian of students under the age of eighteen (18) years and by the parents, guardian or other custodian and the student if the student is over the age of eighteen (18) years. This paragraph shall be subject to and construed to be consistent with existing and subsequent policies regarding maintenance and disclosure of educational records, including but not limited to policies issued in compliance with or in regard to the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

G. Testing and examination materials, before the test or examination is given or, if it is to be given again, before so given again.

H. Welfare cases of identifiable individuals.

I. Preparation, including any discussions or work product, on behalf of the Board of Curators or its representatives for negotiations with employee groups.

J. Software codes for electronic data processing and documentation thereof.

K. Specifications for competitive bidding, until either the specifications are officially approved by the Board of Curators or the specifications are published for bid.

L. Sealed bids and related documents, until the bids are opened; and sealed proposals and related documents or any documents related to a negotiated contract until a contract is executed, or all proposals are rejected.

M. Individually identifiable personnel records, performance ratings or records pertaining to employees or applicants for employment, except that this exemption shall not apply to the names, positions, salaries and lengths of service of officers and employees once they are employed as such, and the names of private sources donating or contributing money to the salary of the President of the University and the amount of money contributed by the source.

N. Records which are protected from disclosure by law.

O. Meetings and public records relating to scientific and technological innovations in which the owner has a proprietary interest.

P. Records relating to municipal hotlines established for the reporting of abuse and wrongdoing.

Q. Confidential or privileged communications with auditors, including all auditor work product; however, all final audit reports issued by the auditor are to be considered open records pursuant to Chapter 610, RSMo.

R. Operational guidelines, policies and specific response plans developed, adopted, or maintained by any public agency responsible for law enforcement, public safety, first response, or public health for use in responding to or preventing any critical incident which is or appears to be terrorist in nature and which has the potential to endanger individual or public safety or health. Nothing in this exception shall be deemed to close information regarding expenditures, purchases, or contracts made by an agency in implementing these guidelines or policies. When seeking to close information pursuant to this exception, it shall be affirmatively stated in writing that disclosure would impair the ability to protect the security or safety of persons or real property, and shall in the same writing state that the public interest in non-disclosure outweighs the public interest in disclosure of the records.

S. Existing or proposed security systems and structural plans of real property owned or leased by the University, and information that is voluntarily submitted by a non-public entity owning or operating an infrastructure to the University for use by the University to devise plans for protection of that infrastructure, the public disclosure of which would threaten public safety.

1. Records related to the procurement of or expenditures relating to security systems purchased with public funds shall be open.

2. When seeking to close specific information pursuant to this exception, the Board of Curators shall affirmatively state in writing that disclosure would impair the Board's ability to protect the security or safety of persons or real property, and shall in the same writing state that the public interest in non-disclosure outweighs the public interest in disclosure of the records.

3. Records that are voluntarily submitted by the University shall be reviewed by the receiving agency within ninety (90) days of submission to determine if retention of the document is necessary in furtherance of a state security interest. If retention is not necessary, the documents shall be returned or destroyed.

T. The portion of a record that identifies security systems or access codes or authorization codes for security systems of real property.

U. Records that identify the configuration of components or the operation of a computer, computer system, computer network, or telecommunications network, and would allow unauthorized access to or unlawful disruption of a computer, computer system, computer network, or telecommunications network of the University. This exception shall not be used to limit or deny access to otherwise public records in a file, document, data file or database containing public records. Records related to the procurement of or expenditures relating to such computer, computer system, computer network, or telecommunications network, including the amount of moneys paid by, or on behalf of, the University for such computer, computer system, computer network, or telecommunications network shall be open.

V. Credit card numbers, personal identification numbers, digital certificates, physical and virtual keys, access codes or authorization codes that are used to protect the security of electronic transactions between the University and a person or entity doing business with the University. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to close the record of a person or entity using a credit card held in the name of the University or any record of a transaction made by a person using a credit card or other method of payment for which reimbursement is made by the University. 

W. Records submitted by an individual, corporation, or other business entity to the University in connection with a proposal to license intellectual property or perform sponsored research and which contains sales projections or other business plan information the disclosure of which may endanger the competitiveness of a business.

X. Investigative reports of the LUPD or other law enforcement agencies are hereby designated as closed records pursuant to Section 610.100.2, RSMo. That section provides that "... mobile video recordings and investigative reports of all law enforcement agencies … are closed records until the investigation becomes inactive." Section 610.100.1(3) defines "inactive" as (a) when the law enforcement agency has decided not to pursue the case, (b) the statute of limitations has expired, or (c) all resulting convictions have become final Although investigation reports are closed records, arrest and incident reports are open records.

Y. Records of, regarding or submitted to the Board of Curators during or in connection with a lawfully closed meeting or vote.

3. The purpose of this rule is to close all records that may legally be closed until such time as they are made open by majority vote of the Board of Curators or by written decision of the President of the University. Closed records shall not become open as a result of the negligent or unauthorized use or disclosure of those records.

4. Closed records may be made available to individuals with a legitimate need to know as necessary for the accomplishment of University business and such availability and use shall not open the records generally. The University's attorney may authorize disclosure of closed records when such disclosure may avoid litigation or settle disputes or as required by a court or in the process of litigation. Such disclosure shall not open the records generally. Individuals receiving or using closed records owe a duty to the Board of Curators to maintain the confidentiality of those records.

5. This rule shall be construed to be consistent with applicable law and guided by the concept that all records allowed to be closed are and shall be closed until opened by majority vote of the Board or Curators or by written decision of the President of the University.

6. If the laws governing public access to records are amended from time to time to limit the ability of the Board of Curators to lawfully close records, this rule shall be automatically amended to make it consistent with such newly adopted law. If a change in the applicable law allows the Board of Curators to close a new category of records, this rule shall be automatically amended to designate such records as closed.

(Chapter 610, RSMo. and Section 172.180, RSMo).