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July 27, 2003 Page 7 with an Attorney General Opinion that noted that if a violation was found to have occurred, then the official could not be found to have acted out of the reasonable and lawful performance of public duties. In specifically disagreeing, the Court of Appeals noted that although the City of Afton officials in that case had been found to have violated the Open Meeting Law, the violation was unintentional. In such a circumstance, the conduct was found to be within the "reasonable and lawful performance of public duties." The court stated: The violation was simply an unfortunate misstep - a stumble - while the appellants went about the performance of legitimate public services. We conclude that the city may provide reimbursement pursuant to ~ 465.76. Id. at p. 356. The court did note that the question of whether the statute would allow payment of defense costs if the Open Meeting Law violation were willful or intentional was not meant to be addressed by its decision. What we can take from this is that it is not enough to show that an official took some action which might be deemed to violate some criminal statute, or some statute of a "criminal nature" such as the Open Meeting Law. As long as the conduct is unintentional it can be said to arise out of the reasonable and lawful performance of duties of the city. Only if it were intentional might there be an issue. Intentional in this sense would seem to require proof of a knowing and willful violation of a law of a criminal nature. 1. Request for Reimbursement To start off the process, the person seeking reimbursement should make a request. That request should be made in writing. By having the request made in writing, there is no doubt as to what is being sought, and under what circumstances and conditions. The request can set forth why the person seeking reimbursement believes it qualifies for payment. Because reimbursement is only for costs and "reasonable attorney's fees," the written request for reimbursement should be accompanied by, or shortly followed by, a detailed and itemized statement of the attorney who performed the services for the person seeking reimbursement. This allows the City, in consultation with its attorney, to determine whether the charges are reasonable. The Council will need to know the hourly charges, the date that services were performed, the services performed, and the amount of time spent on those