Walk It Through: The Public Meeting

Open to all, no secret ballot, and a civil penalty for a member who knowingly attends otherwise.

A resident wants to attend a meeting of the port commission.

Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.

One meeting of a port commission. The purposes for which an executive session may be held, the notice rules for special meetings, and the time limits for bringing an action 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.

Null and voidWhat an action is when a governing body adopts it at a meeting that was not open to the public, or not held on a date fixed by law or rule or with the notice the chapter requires. A vote by secret ballot at a meeting required to be open is null and void too.