When A Meeting Is Public
S.C. Code 30-4-60 and S.C. Code 30-4-80 — open unless closed for a listed reason, and an agenda twenty-four hours ahead
Open by default. Every meeting of every public body is open to the public unless it is closed under the section listing the reasons for which it may be.
- Employment, appointment, compensation, discipline or release of an employee, a student or a person the body regulates.
- Contract negotiations, the sale or purchase of property, legal advice on a pending or potential claim, and settlement of claims.
- Security personnel or devices.
- Investigative proceedings on allegations of criminal misconduct.
- Bringing industries or businesses to the area.
Those are the reasons a body may meet in a closed session. Before going into one, it votes in public, and the presiding officer announces the specific purpose. No action may be taken in a closed session except to adjourn or return to public session.
The agenda, twenty-four hours ahead. An agenda for a regular or special meeting is posted on a bulletin board at the body's office or meeting place, and on its website if it has one, at least twenty-four hours before the meeting. Nothing may be added afterward without another twenty-four hours notice, and once the meeting begins only by a two-thirds vote under the conditions the section sets.
Public bodies give written notice of their regular meetings at the beginning of each calendar year, and emergency meetings are excepted from the posting rule. An employee or client facing an adversary hearing may demand that it be public. Whether a particular meeting was lawful is a question for a licensed South Carolina attorney.
Sources for this section (3)
- S.C. Code 30-4-60 — Meetings of public bodies shall be open
- S.C. Code 30-4-70 — Meetings which may be closed; procedure
- S.C. Code 30-4-80 — Notice of meetings of public bodies
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed South Carolina attorney.