AG issues updated ‘Open Meeting Law Guide’

As part of “Sunshine Week,” Attorney General Maura Healey announced yesterday that her office has issued an updated version of the “Open Meeting Law Guide” to serve as a resource for public bodies and the public.

The newly revised guide includes information about recently enacted laws concerning remote participation by members of local commissions on disability and discussions by public body members about the recess and continuance of a town meeting.

The guide adds information from recent decisions issued by the attorney general’s office regarding the level of detail required in meeting notices, the public’s right to record open meetings, the approval of meeting minutes, and the release of executive session minutes.

• Download new Open Meeting Law Guide (2015 update) (514K PDF)

The open meeting law (Ch. 30A, Secs. 18-25) was enacted to ensure transparency in the deliberations of public policy. The law requires that most meetings of public bodies be held in public, and it establishes rules that public bodies must follow in the creation and maintenance of records relating to those meetings.

“The ‘Open Meeting Law Guide’ is one of many resources our office provides to help educate people about the law and its requirements in order to ensure clarity and compliance,” Healey said. “The additions to this guide, including guidance from previously issued decisions from our office, further our efforts to promote the pillars of the law: good governance and transparency.”

The Division of Open Government in the attorney general’s office was created in 2010 to ensure a continued and consistent focus on the open meeting law by educating individuals about the law, enforcing the law, and acting as a readily accessible resource for members of government, the public and the press.

“Local officials across the Commonwealth appreciate the importance and seriousness of the open meeting law,” said MMA Executive Director Geoff Beckwith. “Municipal officials are committed to working with the attorney general’s Division of Open Government to ensure compliance with the law. The staff of the division does excellent work educating the general public on the complexities of the law, and municipal officials and the MMA look forward to continuing to be of assistance in those efforts.”

Since assuming responsibility for enforcement of the open meeting law at all levels of government in July 2010, the Division of Open Government has responded to more than 10,400 telephone and email inquiries from members of public bodies, municipal counsel and the public. The division has also conducted 25 regional trainings on the law across the state and issued 575 written determinations.

In order to provide greater transparency and access to the office’s decisions, all of the attorney general’s open meeting law determinations are available online through an interactive database: the Open Meeting Law Determination Lookup.

In 2014, the division issued 155 determinations resolving open meeting law complaints.

The most frequently occurring violations were:
• Insufficient meeting notices
• Deliberation outside of a properly posted meeting, including email deliberation
• Failure to follow appropriate procedures for entering executive session
• Insufficiently specific or inaccurate meeting minutes
• Failure to follow the requirements of the open meeting law complaint process

Remedial actions most frequently ordered by the division were:
• Immediate and future compliance with the open meeting law
• Public release of documents, such as emails, used in deliberation outside of an open meeting
• Attendance at a training on the open meeting law or review of all or part of the attorney general’s online training video
• Creation or amendment of open session or executive session minutes
• Public release of open session or executive session minutes

The division has created a host of resources intended to assist the public with understanding and complying with the open meeting law. These include: answers to frequently asked questions; checklists about meeting notices, minutes and executive sessions; and an online training video that can be found on YouTube and the attorney general’s open meeting law web page.

The attorney general’s office regularly holds free regional educational forums and is offering a live web-based training on April 14.

To attend an educational forum or webinar, register by calling (617) 963-2925 or by emailing OMLTraining@state.ma.us.

For more information about the open meeting law, visit www.mass.gov/ago/openmeeting.