Door 7. Access to Meetings

Professional journalists attend meetings at all levels of government, from village halls to Congress, to find out what public officials are doing, what’s in dispute, how decisions are made and how issues are addressed.  Their attendance allows them to provide important information on matters of interest to the public and also helps to hold government agencies and officials accountable.  With cutbacks at news organizations of all sizes, bloggers and citizen journalists are increasingly fulfilling these crucial roles. 

Generally, when meetings are open to the public, the press may not be excluded.  The same goes for bloggers and citizen journalists.

The ability to attend public meetings is protected under state and federal open-meeting or “sunshine” laws. 

These statutes spell out such basics as:

What is the definition of a meeting under the law?
(Some states provide no definition of what constitutes a meeting.  Others define a meeting as any official gathering of a public body, in person or via electronic connection.  Other states’ laws more narrowly require government agencies and bodies to comply with open government requirements when a quorum is present or the group is assembled for decision-making purposes or both.)

Which agencies and government units are covered and must comply?

What are the notice requirements for regular, special and emergency meetings?

Who is entitled to attend?
(In most, but not all, states, anyone, including citizens, non-citizens and journalists, can attend).

What are the requirements for recording, keeping and posting minutes?

Does the public have the right to record or photograph?

What are the permissible reasons for closing meetings?

What are the proper procedures for closing meetings?

What are the procedures for contesting a meeting’s closure?

If a meeting is wrongfully closed, what remedies are available and can legal fees be recovered?

There is tremendous variation among state open meeting law provisions, including in terms of notice requirements.  For example, some states don’t specify any timetable for when notice of a regular meeting must be provided.  Other states require a 10-day notice or even the establishment of a regular meeting schedule for each calendar year.

Check your state’s notice requirements and other aspects of your state’s open-meetings law by using this extremely helpful guide offered by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Practically speaking, how do you find out about public meetings?  Your municipality’s Web site could be a good starting place. 

Here’s the official home page of Flint, Mich.

On the top left, under “Quick Links,” is a tab for Open Meetings.  Scroll over that and you’ll get to a short list of six types of governing bodies.  You can click on any one of them for a meeting schedule.  Is this all-inclusive?  Apparently not.  If you click on the “Departments” tab, you’ll find a broader list of city departments, some of which, such as Planning and Zoning, have their own meeting schedules. 

REPORTING TIP: You can also find out about meetings by stopping by your Town or Village or City Hall, or phoning the clerk or the department that’s of interest to you. 

REPORTING TIP:  Before you attempt to attend, check on your rights under your state’s sunshine law: The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press offers a helpful guide or you can click on our interactive map for resources for each state. This step will help you understand your rights in terms of attendance, whether and under what conditions you may be excluded, and, under some states’ rules, whether you may record or photograph.

REPORTING TIP:  In attending and covering meetings, try to keep an open mind.  Until you’re up to speed on a specific issue, try not to be overly influenced by a particularly persuasive speaker or source.  It takes time to understand the complexities of an issue: the stakeholders, points in contention, who’s aligned with whom and why, personal agendas and ambitions, and the personalities of the players.  Taking time will help you to better serve your audience and will protect you against legal risk relating to libel.

States’ sunshine laws and the federal government in the Sunshine Act provide exceptions to general rules permitting meeting attendance by the public (and journalists and bloggers).  Some common exceptions: discussion that, if made public, would imperil public safety or compromise law enforcement investigations; personnel-related matters regarding individual employees; and meetings concerning labor negotiations and lawsuit-related strategies.

These are the legal exceptions that allow closed-door meetings under federal law:

When the meeting:
1. would disclose national security or foreign policy secrets;
2. relates solely to an agency’s internal personnel rules and practices;
3. would disclose matters specifically exempted from disclosure by a statute;
4. would disclose trade secrets;
5. would involve accusing any person of a crime, or formally censuring any person;
6. would “disclose information of a personal nature where disclosure would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy”;
7. would disclose investigatory records compiled for law enforcement purposes if: (A) the disclosure would interfere with enforcement proceedings; (B) deprive a person of a right to a fair trial/hearing; (C) constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy; (D) disclose the identity of a confidential source or (for records compiled by criminal law enforcement authorities in criminal investigations or by agencies conducting national security intelligence investigations) confidential information furnished only by the confidential source; (E) disclose investigative techniques and procedures; or (F) endanger
the life or physical safety of law enforcement personnel;
8. would disclose information contained in or related to examination, operating or condition reports prepared by, on behalf of, or for the use of an agency responsible for the regulation or supervision of
financial institutions;
9. by a financial regulatory agency would prematurely disclose information that would likely lead to significant financial speculation in currencies,
securities, or commodities, or significantly endanger the stability of any financial institution.
10. would likely “significantly frustrate” implementation of a proposed agency action, unless information about the proposed action has been disclosed or is required to be disclosed.
11. specifically concerns the agency’s legal strategies or actions relating to legal disputes and proceedings.

Red Flags: When Might You Suspect That Your Local Government Is Being Overly Secretive?

1.   When there’s no notice or insufficient notice of meetings.
2.   When important actions are taken behind closed doors without adequate explanation of how the closed-door sessions fit into one or more of the categories under the law that permit exclusion of the public.
3.   When meaningful minutes aren’t available.

Take the Mini-Quiz

Next: Door 8. Access to Courts