Walk It Through: The Council Meeting And The Records
An agenda twenty-four hours ahead, a closed session, and a request for the records behind it.
A resident hears the council will vote on a land deal, but the posted agenda does not mention it.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One council meeting. The exemptions to disclosure, the time a body has to answer, emergency meetings and the remedies for a violation 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.
- Executive sessionA meeting a public body closes to the public for one of the reasons the section lists, after a public vote and an announcement of its specific purpose. No action may be taken in it except to adjourn or return to public session.
- MisconductFor unemployment, conduct showing wilful and wanton disregard of the employer's interests. A discharge for it disqualifies a worker for twenty weeks.
- Public recordA record of a public body, which a person has a right to inspect, copy or receive electronically, except as the exemptions or other laws provide, at fees no more than the actual cost.