Internet Forums for Governing Bodies

Last year, legislation passed that created a pilot project in Knox County to allow an internet forum for county commissioners to communicate with each other. This was in response to lawsuits and injunctions related to alleged violations of the open meetings act. The internet forum, which is open to public view, gives the commissioners a place to publically share information about issues before the county commission without circumventing the state's open meeting laws.

A bill is now on its way to the Governor for his signature that would extend this pilot project to cities, counties and school boards statewide. The bill is HB 533/SB832 by Rep. Dunn and Sen. McNally. The bill originally simply extended a sunset provision on the Knox County pilot project.

Essentially, as it passed, the bill allows governing bodies of cities, counties and school districts to set up a forum over the internet for sharing of information between members. There are several conditions that must be met and before using the site and you must file a plan with the office of open records on how you intend to comply with the conditions. The conditions are: 1) There must be public notice of an intent to use such a website; 2) The county must provide public access to the communications; 3) There must be control of who can communicate through the forum; 4) The posts must be archived for at least one year; and 5) Computers must be provided for public access at the public library, the courthouse or other public building so that someone without a computer or internet access can still have access to the forum.

Communication over this site cannot substitute for a meeting of the governing body, so this is not a form of teleconferencing or internet conferencing. But information shared between members of the governing body on the website will not be considered a violation of the open meetings act. I plan to get in touch with the Office of Open Records soon to see if they will be putting out any guidance on the law and what they want to see in plans filed with their office. When I get that, I’ll try and get it distributed to the counties. In the meantime, you may want to consider whether this could be a useful mechanism for your members of your county commission to become better informed about issues before they come before up in the meeting for consideration.