Flexibility in open meeting requirements found favor in the Senate.

 

Senate Bill 91, which revises open meeting requirements, passed the Senate State Affairs committee on a 9-0 vote and the full Senate on a 30-0 vote.

 

ASBSD supports the bill, which amends the public comment period at meetings by putting the period with which it will be offered at the meeting the discretion of the full public body and at a minimum requires the period be offered at regularly scheduled meetings.

 

“School boards have set policies and procedures for open forums,” ASBSD Executive Director Wade Pogany testified during the bill’s committee hearing.

 

“The body itself decides what kind of forum procedure you’ll have.”

 

In addition, SB 91 permits a public body to simply post a notice of quorum should a majority of the public body’s members be set to attend a nongovernmental entity event where public policy will be discussed, but the public body does not control the agenda.

 

“I would endorse the changes that are represented in the bill,” Sen. Brock Greenfield said of SB 91, which now heads to the House for review.

 

For updates on this bill and other legislation, check the ASBSD Blog, Twitter feed, Facebook page and Bill Tracker.