New AG Opinion on Open Meetings Act

The Tennessee Attorney General issued an opinion earlier this month answering a question related to the Tennessee Open Meetings Act.  The question posed to the Attorney General was whether members of a county or city legislative body could share a meal together and casually discuss issues before the governing body if the discussion is for informative purposes only and no decisions are reached or attempts made to obtain commitments.  The opinion discusses much of the case law interpreting these statutes and advises that while public business could possibly be discussed without violating the law, the discussion of the members must not constitute "deliberations."  The opinion cites a recent court case out of Metro Nashville to provide guidance on what are "deliberations."  The court defined the term to mean examining and consulting in order to form an opinion or weighing arguments for and against a proposed course of action. While the A.G. Opinion (the full text of which can be found here: http://www.tn.gov/attorneygeneral/op/2012/op12-60.pdf) allows for the possibility of informal discussions about county business that would not violate the act, it is hard to imagine a substantive conversation about county business that included no content that could be challenged as related to forming an opinion or weighing sides of an issue.