CHRISTIANSBURG -- The town's mayor on Tuesday night asked legal counsel to research the state's Freedom of Information Act requirements for public meetings and provide training to council members and town administrators.

The move followed concerns raised by The Roanoke Times over the town's interpretation of the state's edict protecting open government.

The council's finance committee -- represented by Town Manager Lance Terpenny, Assistant Town Manager Barry Helms, Councilman Mike Barber, Councilwoman Ann Carter and Mayor Richard Ballengee, the ex-officio member -- met March 18 to discuss "alternate ways of raising revenue" in preparation for upcoming budget meetings, according to several in attendance.

The newspaper learned of the meeting March 27 after the town failed to provide notice of it, a practice that has been routine for many years. So many years, in fact, that no one is sure when the practice started.

Terpenny confirmed that meetings of committees and subcommittees are not posted, which is a violation of FOIA's section 2.2-3703, which states "Every public body shall give notice of the date, time and location of its meetings by placing the notice in a prominent public location at which notices are regularly posted and in the office of the clerk of the public body, or in the case of a public body that has no clerk, in the office of the chief administrator."

Town Clerk Michele Stipes said she sends e-mail notices of regularly scheduled council meetings to 34 people on her contact list but does not send notices of other meetings.

"I'm usually not notified officially when they're being held," Stipes said. "I don't really have anything to do with those meetings."

"It appears that, indeed, there has been a long-standing misunderstanding," said Elizabeth Dillon, one of the town's lawyers. The town is represented by the Salem firm of Guynn, Memmer & Dillon.

Dillon said town administrators were under the impression that "as long as there were less than three members of council, it was not a meeting because it did not constitute a quorum." But the lawyer agreed that Virginia's Freedom of Information Act is clear on the point that committees and subcommittees created by a public body become public bodies themselves and are then subject to FOIA.

"FOIA does require that every public body post notices in a conspicuous public place and electronic posting is encouraged," Dillon said, noting that residents filing a request to be told of public meetings should be given a three-day notice of meetings directly.

The Roanoke Times questioned the town's practice of scheduling committee meetings without public notice last May when budget discussions began. Ballengee said then that notice was not required because only two members of the council served on the committee. When challenged, Ballengee said he contacted the Virginia Municipal League and was told that the committee meetings were required to be open to the public. The mayor apologized for the misunderstanding and stated that notice would be given in the future.

On May 30, The Roanoke Times filed an annual written FOIA request to the town, requesting notification "of committee and subcommittee meetings, including the finance committee, where public funds are discussed." The newspaper was not notified of the March 18 meeting.

Ballengee, who said he called the paper but did not leave a message about the meeting, said no meeting notes were recorded "because it was just sort of a brainstorming session."

"It wasn't to discuss the budget," Ballengee said.

"We talked about revenue and ways to increase revenue," Barber said. "There were no formal actions taken."

When Terpenny was contacted by the newspaper Monday, he said notifying the public of committee meetings in which only two council members participate "has been a debatable issue."

Keeping the meetings private was the policy of his predecessor, the late John Lemley, Christiansburg's town manager from 1956 to 1996 who was then the longest serving municipal administrator in the state. Terpenny was Lemley's assistant and succeeded him as town manager in 1996.

Terpenny said either he or the mayor is responsible for notifying the public of open meetings. He said he called members of the finance committee and tried to get all members to agree on a time to meet. After several meetings were called off because of illness and scheduling conflicts, the group decided on the March 18 date.

Terpenny said Monday there is currently no set schedule of finance committee meetings and no plan to make one for the upcoming budget discussions.

"We've talked about having a budget work session, but we haven't done anything like that yet," Ballengee noted. Christiansburg, unlike many municipalities, has never held budget work sessions where all council members are involved. In the past, town administrators have called council members in to discuss the proposed budget in pairs of two. Dillon said that practice is allowed under the Freedom of Information Act because the meetings are not committee meetings.

"What usually happens is they come up with a rough budget and call us in to go through it. There are two councilmen at a time," Councilman Ernie Wade said. He figures the discussions are handled that way because "if you had all of us in there at one time, it would take forever."

Unlike Montgomery County and the town of Blacksburg, which are already conducting public hearings on proposed budgets, Christiansburg does not begin preparing its budget until late March or early April, Terpenny said. The fiscal year for Virginia municipalities runs from July 1 to June 30.

"We wait until the end of the third quarter. We have a more accurate revenue projection of the coming year. We seldom have to do a budget amendment," he said. "When you have that more accurate data, you can be much more efficient in projecting expenditures and revenues for the year."

Critics of the late start, however, say the process does not allow enough public input and discussion.

Tacy Newell-Foutz, a Christiansburg businesswoman who made an unsuccessful bid for a council seat in 2006, is one of the few residents who regularly attend council meetings. She said she has had trouble accessing information from the town, even though she was appointed last year to the town's board of zoning appeals.

"I've made three requests for all chapters of the town's zoning ordinance, and I still haven't gotten them," she said. "I still don't have an understanding of the budget, of records and how to get them. I feel as a town resident I should have a better understanding."

Carter, who has the longest tenure on the council with 18 years and is a member of the finance committee, said public apathy might be a result of the town's lack of openness.

"When the budget comes up for a public hearing, we usually have only one or two people who come," she said. "Maybe we as a town haven't gotten the word out."

"If we can get the people -- the citizens --more involved," she added, "that would be good."