COEUR d'ALENE - Police officers in Coeur d'Alene have completed an investigation into a citizen's complaint that three school board members may have violated the state's open meeting law.

The complaint, lodged March 27 by Mary Jo Finney, was emailed to Kootenai County Prosecutor Barry McHugh.

Finney claims that during a trip to Boise, school trustees Tom Hearn, Christa Hazel and Dave Eubanks - three members of Coeur d'Alene's five-member school board - broke the state law that prohibits the formation of public policy in secret.

"There was an article in The Press with a picture showing them meeting together as a quorum in Boise," Finney wrote, in her email to McHugh. "Paragraph 9 of the open meeting manual gives me reason to believe a violation has occurred. I believe this discussion took place in this quorum in Boise about the GLBT 'add the words.'"

The three trustees did travel to Boise together, with Superintendent Matt Handelman and Communications Director Laura Rumpler, for the Idaho School Boards Association's annual Day on the Hill which took place Feb. 24-25. The event attracts school trustees from the entire state each year.

School board members spent time attending workshops hosted by the ISBA, meeting with legislators, and attending state House and Senate Education Committee meetings.

A notice advising the public that a quorum of school trustees would be in attendance at the Boise event was posted Feb. 21 by Lynn Towne, school board clerk.

There was no article or photo published in The Press about the trustees' trip to Boise. A photo of Hearn, Hazel and Eubanks posing in the rotunda of the Capitol building was published elsewhere online, but not on The Press website.

Last year, before Hearn, Hazel and Eubanks were elected to the board, all five school trustees attended the Day on the Hill in Boise, including current board members Tom Hamilton and Terri Seymour, who didn't go this year.

Hamilton, who was board chair a year ago, told The Press Wednesday that he was in a similar photo taken in the rotunda last year.

"Those kinds of things are going to happen," Hamilton said. "It's appropriate for them to attend Day on the Hill."

The state's open meeting law does not prohibit governing board members from being in the same place at the same time. It does prohibit them from deliberating or making decisions behind closed doors.

Throughout the last legislative session, demonstrators camped at the Capitol building in an attempt to get lawmakers to consider changing the state's human rights laws to "add the words" that would provide protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

"We didn't see the demonstrators," said board chair Tom Hearn, during an interview Wednesday. "They weren't even there when we were there."

Finney is also claiming that open meeting laws were violated in other ways, based on emails she obtained through a public records request filed with the school district.

"Mary paid $400 for the request and obtained over 1,200 emails from the request," wrote the police officer who completed the investigation.

Finney wrote in her complaint that the emails reveal, "...this has been an ongoing discussion between two board members and the superintendent since Sept. 2."

Finney is referring to a request made by Susan Moss, an attorney and parent of children attending Coeur d'Alene schools, that the district consider changing its nondiscrimination policy to "add the words" that would provide protections for members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

Moss emailed the district's human resources director, Kelly Ostrom, on Sept. 2 to suggest the policy change.

Ostrom responded by email on Sept. 10 that the district's nondiscrimination statement was recently reviewed and updated with assistance from the district's attorney and the United States Education Department's Office for Civil Rights.

Hearn told The Press Wednesday that he did not receive any communication about the situation until November.

Moss sent Hearn and Hazel an email on Nov. 19 informing them of her position that the district's policy on nondiscrimination be expanded.

Hearn responded that day to Moss and Hazel by email.

"I realized that if I talk to Christa or other board members about this issue outside of a board meeting it could be construed as an open meeting violation which I most certainly do not want to do," Hearn wrote. "So I would suggest that if you have a concern about this issue you present it to the entire board in the public comments section of the board meetings."

Hearn said Moss wanted to make a presentation to the board as an agenda item.

"We said no," Hearn said.

Hamilton said he doesn't think Hearn, Hazel and Eubanks violated the open meeting law.

"But the appearance was there. I think the wise thing to do would have been to get it out in front of the board as quickly as possible," Hamilton said.

Meanwhile, Finney is calling for Hearn to step down from his position on the board.

"I don't think I have any reason to step down," Hearn told The Press.

McHugh, who is out of his office until April 30, told The Press in an email that he plans to review the Coeur d'Alene Police Department's investigation. Under Idaho Code, county prosecutors are charged with enforcing the state's open meeting laws.

If McHugh determines that a trustee has violated the law, it would be a civil, not criminal, penalty of as much as $50 for an unintentional offense. If McHugh decides a trustee knowingly violated the law, the penalty could be as much as $500, but no more.