Open Meeting

Minnesota's Open Meeting Law applies to almost all meetings of public bodies, state and local. The statute, section 471.705 begins with a presumption of openness. The open meeting applies to "all meetings, including executive sessions, of a state agency, board, commission, or department when required or permitted by law to transact public business in a meeting." The Commissioner of Corrections is exempt. The open meeting law applies to school districts. It applies to any "unorganized territory, county, statutory or home rule city, town, or other public body." It also applies to subcommittees of the public body.

Journal: The open meeting law requires each covered governing body to keep a journal of the votes of its members. The journal must record votes of any meeting required to be open. The journal must be open to the public during all normal business hours where records of the public body are kept. The vote of each member must be recorded on each appropriation of money, except for payments of judgments, claims, and amounts fixed by statute.

Quasi-judicial functions. State agencies are not covered by the open meeting law when they are exercising quasi-judicial functions involving disciplinary proceedings.

Interactive Television: The statute permits meetings to be held by interactive television under certain circumstances.

Labor Negotiations: Special provisions apply to labor negotiations. The governing body of a public employer may by a majority vote in a public meeting decide to hold a closed meeting to consider strategy for labor negotiations, including negotiation strategies or developments or discussion and review of labor negotiation proposals. This exemption does not apply to all discussions about staff and about compensation. The exemption only applies if the meeting is being conducted under PELRA, the public bargaining law. In order to qualify for the exemption:

The time of commencement and place of the closed meeting must be announced at the public meeting.
A written roll of members and all other persons present at the closed meeting must be made available to the public after the closed meeting.
The proceedings of a closed meeting to discuss negotiation strategies shall be tape-recorded at the expense of the governing body.

Recordings of labor negotiation meetings must be preserved for two years after the contract is signed. They become public "after all labor contracts are signed by the governing body for the current budget period."

Written materials used at meetings. A public body must make available to the public at least one copy of any printed materials relating to the agenda items of the meeting prepared or distributed by or at the direction of the governing body or its employees. The requirement applies if the materials are:

(1) distributed at the meeting to all members of the governing body;
(2) distributed before the meeting to all members; or
(3) available in the meeting room to all members.

These materials must be available in the meeting room for inspection by the public while the governing body considers their subject matter. Certain materials are exempt from this provision, specifically, non public data under the Data Practices Act and materials relating to the agenda items of a properly closed meeting.

Notice of meetings. A schedule of the regular meetings of a public body must be kept on file at its primary offices. When a regular meeting is re-scheduled it must be treated as a special meeting. The notification requirement covers closed meetings. Some state agencies have special notification provisions which would supersede these general requirements.

Since the public has no reason to know the time and place of special meetings, the law requires special notice of those meetings. For a special meeting, (except an emergency meeting or a special meeting for which a notice requirement is otherwise expressly established by statute), the special meeting notification requirements are as follows:

the public body shall post written notice of the date, time, place, and purpose of the meeting on the principal bulletin board of the public body, or if the public body has no principal bulletin board, on the door of its usual meeting room.
The notice shall also be mailed or otherwise delivered to each person who has filed a written request for notice of special meetings with the public body.
This notice shall be posted and mailed or delivered at least three days before the date of the meeting.

Alternative notification: As an alternative to mailing or otherwise delivering notice to persons who have filed a written request for notice of special meetings, the public body may publish the notice once, at least three days before the meeting, in the official newspaper of the public body or, if there is none, in a qualified newspaper of general circulation within the area of the public body's authority.

Emergency meetings. An "emergency" meeting is a special meeting called because of circumstances that, in the judgment of the public body, require immediate consideration by the public body. If matters not directly related to the emergency are discussed or acted upon at an emergency meeting, the minutes of the meeting shall include a specific description of the matters. For an emergency meeting, the public body shall make good faith efforts to provide notice of the meeting to each news medium that has filed a written request for notice if the request includes the news medium's telephone number. Notice of the emergency meeting shall be given by telephone or by any other method used to notify the members of the public body. Notice shall be provided to each news medium which has filed a written request for notice as soon as reasonably practicable after notice has been given to the members. Notice shall include the subject of the meeting. Posted or published notice of an emergency meeting shall not be required.

Recessed or continued meetings. If a meeting is a recessed or continued session of a previous meeting, and the time and place of the meeting was established during the previous meeting and recorded in the minutes of that meeting, then no further published or mailed notice is necessary.

Exceptions to Open Meeting requirement:

Treatment of data classified as not public. The rules governing open meetings held to discuss non-public data are somewhat complex. We discuss that issue in an upcoming panel. The statute does not require closure of a meeting to discuss non-public data, except under specific circumstances. Any portion of a meeting must be closed if expressly required by other law or if the following types of data are discussed:

(1) data that would identify alleged victims or reporters of criminal sexual conduct, domestic abuse, or maltreatment of minors or vulnerable adults;
(2) active investigative data as defined in section 13.82, subdivision 5, or internal affairs data relating to allegations of law enforcement personnel misconduct collected or created by a state agency, statewide system, or political subdivision; or
(3) educational data, health data, medical data, welfare data, or mental health data that are not public data under section 13.32, 13.38, 13.42, or 13.46, subdivision 2 or 7.

Preliminary Disciplinary Meetings. A public body shall close one or more meetings for preliminary consideration of allegations or charges against an individual subject to its authority. If the members conclude that discipline of any nature may be warranted as a result of those specific charges or allegations, further meetings or hearings relating to those specific charges or allegations held after that conclusion is reached must be open. A meeting must also be open at the request of the individual who is the subject of the meeting.

Evaluation Meetings. A public body may close a meeting to evaluate the performance of an individual who is subject to its authority. If it does, the public body must identify the individual to be evaluated prior to closing a meeting. A meeting must be open at the request of the individual who is the subject of the meeting. Public Summary of Evaluation. At its next open meeting, the public body must summarize its conclusions regarding the evaluation.

Attorney Client Meetings: Meetings may be closed if the closure is expressly authorized by statute or permitted by the attorney-client privilege.

Committee Meetings Attorney General's Opinion on attendance of additional members at committee meetings.

League Memo League of Cities Memo on Open Meeting Law