The open meetings law now requires that city and county legislative bodies produce an agenda available to the public at least 48 hours before a meeting and that “reasonably describes” each agenda item.
The new agenda law applies to all meetings of local legislative bodies, including city councils, boards of aldermen, and county commissions.
Some details:
- The agenda must be available 48 hours in advance in a place accessible to the public. This place can be on the governing body’s website or in a public building, such as a city hall.
- A governing body can add an item to the agenda during the meeting only if members follow their bylaws or properly adopted rules and procedures and comply with all other applicable state laws.
- However, the governing body is prohibited from circumventing the advance agenda requirements to avoid public disclosure of the business to be considered.
- By law, notice for a special-called meeting must include the purpose of the meeting and be described in a way that a person with an ordinary degree of reason and intelligence, exercising average skill and judgment, might determine.
Governing bodies may restrict comments to items on the agenda
The law requires that a governing body reserve a period for comment “on matters that are germane to the items on the agenda for the meeting.” Nothing restricts a governing body from allowing comment on items not on the agenda.
Some additional details:
- The governing body may put “reasonable restrictions” on the comment period, “such as the length of the period, the number of speakers and the length of the time that each speaker will be allowed to comment.”
- The governing body may require people to give advance notice that they want to speak. The meeting notice must tell citizens how they can express their desire to speak, for example, if they need to sign up.
- The law requires that the governing body take steps “to ensure that opposing viewpoints are represented fairly.”
- Public comment periods are not required for meetings in which a governing body is conducting a disciplinary hearing for a member or for a person whose profession is regulated by the governing body, such as state licensure boards.