When A Meeting Is Public

In Arizona, all meetings of any public body are public meetings, and all persons who want to may attend and listen to the deliberations and proceedings. All legal action of public bodies occurs during a public meeting.

• §A.R.S. 38-431.01

• Every public body keeps written minutes or a recording of all its meetings, including executive sessions.
• Minutes of an open meeting give the date, time and place, the members present or absent, a general description of the matters considered, and how each member voted on each legal action.
• The minutes or a recording are available for public inspection three working days after the meeting, except as the article otherwise provides.
• Schools, school boards, executive boards and municipalities provide seating for the reasonably anticipated attendance, when feasible.
• A city or town of more than two thousand five hundred persons posts a statement of legal actions taken, or a recording, on its website within three working days.

• §A.R.S. 38-431.01

A public body may hold an open call to the public, subject to reasonable time, place and manner restrictions, so individuals can address it on any issue within its jurisdiction. Afterward, members may respond to criticism, ask staff to review a matter, or ask that it be put on a future agenda, but they do not discuss or take legal action on matters raised unless the matters were properly noticed.

• §A.R.S. 38-431.01

The notice and agenda rules, the purposes for which an executive session may be held, and the remedies for a violation are in other sections of the article and are not reproduced here. Whether a particular gathering was a meeting of a public body is a question for a court and for a licensed Arizona attorney.

• §A.R.S. 38-431.01