The Haines Borough manager and police chief on Wednesday uninvited the assembly to a meeting aimed at developing a local response plan for active shooter situations.

The meeting invitation initially included assembly members, but specified the event would be closed to the public and the media. After it was pointed out that a meeting attended by more than three assembly members would qualify as a public meeting under the Alaska Open Meetings Act, Police Chief Heath Scott and Manager Debra Schnabel decided to rescind the assembly’s invitation.

“The nature of this brief is to learn about how active threats transform and how law enforcement and public safety respond,” said an email invitation to more than 21 organizations including church leaders, the tourism director, borough administration staff, public safety committee members, Haines Assisted Living management, Chilkoot Indian Association leaders, Southeast Alaska State Fair management, school board members and school administrators among others.

The Alaska Open Meetings Act requires all meetings of a governmental body to be open to the public. Exceptions include discussions that could have an adverse effect on the finances of a public entity, and subjects that could prejudice the reputation and character of a person.

Scott said he plans to post the content of the briefing – two short video and PowerPoint presentation – on the borough website, but wants to keep the meeting private to facilitate a candid discussion.

“I want to be able to be frank with people and say, ‘Hey, this is what you can expect if you had a call from an active shooter right now.’ I don’t want to cause problems for the assembly. I think I should be able to deliver what I term as a ‘secure brief.’ I should be able to deliver that to the assembly and the assembly members.”

Scott said the community needs to develop a plan to react to active shooters and establish a “phased approach to training” that leaders can pass down to other staff. “First we need to agree that we need to develop a plan,” Scott said.

Alaska Municipal League executive director Kathie Wasserman said the borough needs to be “very careful” when organizing meetings with the assembly without the public’s involvement.

“The police are under the municipality and the municipality has certain laws or rules they have to follow, open meetings being one of them,” Wasserman said. “If they’ve got assembly members there and it’s a closed meeting, that’s not right. All they need is someone in the community to get a little antsy about this and they could make it an issue.”

Three assembly members were targeted for recall last year for allegedly violating the state’s Open Meetings Act after exchanging emails about the small boat harbor project. “If the assembly is a little worried about what they can do, then this is something they need to check on to make sure it’s legal,” Wasserman said. “Maybe they should bring their concern to the mayor.”

Before the assembly was uninvited, assembly member Stephanie Scott said she planned to go to the meeting. “I definitely will go, but I don’t understand why it’s being held so secretly,” Scott said. “It seems stupid, but hopefully we can help (the closed aspect of the meeting) be taken off the requirements.”

Assembly member Tom Morphet said he didn’t see the administration’s reasoning behind shutting the public out, but acknowledged that while the decision was ill-advised, it likely isn’t worth fretting over.

“It’s probably a misstep, but probably one we shouldn’t spend much time knocking our heads about,” he said.

The meeting is scheduled for March 28.