BILL NUMBER: S9010

SPONSOR: SKOUFIS
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the public officers law, in relation to expanding use of
videoconferencing to purely advisory bodies

 
PURPOSE:

This bill is intended to eliminate physical presence quorum requirements
in the Open Meetings Law for advisory committees and subcommittees of
public bodies.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1. Adds a new paragraph (j) to subdivision 2 of section 103-a of
the Public Officers Law to provide that a public body may, at its
discretion, authorize members of its committees and subcommittees that
perform advisory functions only to attend meetings of such committees
and subcommittees from one or more non-public locations through the use
of videoconferencing and be considered present for purposes of fulfill-
              

ing quorum requirements for such meetings, provided that an opportunity
for the public to attend, listen, and observe such meeting in at least
one physical location is provided and that location meets all physical
access requirements of section one hundred three of this article.

Section 2. Is the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Presently, the Open Meetings Law requires the physical presence of a
quorum of members of purely advisory committees and subcommittees at
locations open to the public when they participate in meetings of such
bodies by videoconference, which makes holding meetings more difficult
and therefore results in less transparency for the public.

The Open Meetings Law requires that when meetings of committees and
subcommittees of public bodies, including those that are advisory only
and lack decision-making authority, are conducted using videoconferenc-
ing, not only must the public be able to attend virtually, but a quorum
of members of the public body must be physically present at one or more
locations open to the public. Under current law, members of the body who
are experiencing extraordinary circumstances can participate in meetings
remotely from locations that are not open to the public but they do not
count toward a quorum.

Such a physical presence requirement for meetings of purely advisory
committees and subcommittees does not enhance transparency, results in
inefficiency, increases the cost of holding meetings, causes far fewer
public committee meetings to be held, and decreases the number of public
meetings of such bodies available for the public to observe.

Removing the physical presence requirement will increase transparency
and substantially increase the number and frequency of non-decisional
committee meetings of advisory-only bodies. Authorizing purely advisory
subordinate bodies to meet by publicly live-streamed and recorded video-
conference, with ample public notice and without requiring members to
travel long distances to assemble physically in public, will facilitate
the readily accessible convening of such meetings and thereby both
foster the principle of public scrutiny of the workings of state and
local government that lies at the heart of the Open Meetings Law and
serve the broader public interest without materially trenching upon
either.

The Open Meetings Law should be amended to authorize meetings of purely
advisory committees, subcommittees, and other subordinate bodies to be
conducted openly and accessibly, using ubiquitous and universally
accepted videoconferencing and live-streaming technology without requir-
ing members to assemble physically at locations open to the public. An
amendment to the Open Meetings Law that eliminates the requirement of
being physically present to count toward a quorum for meetings of purely
advisory subordinate bodies and permits such bodies to conduct their
meetings using readily available and widely used technologies that
provide fully effective and comprehensive contemporaneous public access
to those meetings, advances the objectives of the Open Meetings Law and
its guiding principle:  transparency in government proceedings.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

Enactment of this bill will reduce meeting costs for public bodies.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:  Enactment of this bill will reduce meeting costs for
public bodies.  This act shall take effect immediately.