Walk It Through: The Public Meeting
Time for public comment, a closed door only for the listed reasons, and adequate notice first.
A parent wants to speak about class sizes at the board of education meeting.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One board of education meeting. What adequate notice requires, the minutes rules, and the remedies for an action taken at a meeting that did not comply are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Adequate noticeThe notice to the public a body gives before holding a meeting. Without it, a meeting is held only on the affirmative vote of three quarters of the members present for a matter so urgent that delay for notice would likely cause substantial harm to the public interest.
- Closed sessionA portion of a meeting from which the public may be excluded, limited to the matters the section lists, such as collective bargaining, pending or anticipated litigation, and personnel matters about a specific officer or employee.
- Public commentThe portion of every meeting, of a length the body decides, that a municipal governing body and a board of education set aside for comment on any governmental or school district issue a member of the public feels may concern the residents.