N.Y. Open Meetings Law Imposes New Posting Requirements

Effective November 8, 2021, Boards of Education are required to post meeting minutes on the District’s website within 14 days of the meeting. In those situations where meeting minutes are not prepared within 14 days, the law provides that “unabridged video recordings or unabridged audio recordings or unabridged written transcripts may be deemed to be meeting minutes” for this purpose. This requirement applies if the District “maintains a regularly and routinely updated website and utilizes a high speed internet connection”.

While boards of education have been authorized to conduct virtual meetings with the condition that the meeting be recorded and later transcribed, the practical effect of this amendment is that all board of education meetings, virtual or in-person, will be required to be recorded in some verbatim format if formal minutes cannot be prepared within the 14-day time period.

Under prior law, within two weeks after a meeting, the minutes were available if a district received a request under the Freedom of Information Law (“FOIL”). The amendment requires public bodies to affirmatively act to post minutes without the need for a FOIL request. The New York State Committee on Open Government has expressed the opinion that if a Board has not yet formally approved the minutes, the minutes that are made available may be marked “unapproved”, “draft” or “non-final”.

This amendment is in addition to the amendment signed in October 2021 (effective November 18, 2021), requiring that documents to be discussed at an open meeting be made available upon request or posted on the District’s website at least 24 hours prior to the meeting, to the extent practicable. “Walk-on” agenda items or documents not received by the District 24 hours in advance of the meeting are not prohibited from being discussed.

Both amendments are subject to enforcement under the provisions of Public Officers Law Section 107. Any person aggrieved by the Board’s failure to comply may bring an action in NY State Court seeking declaration that the District has violated the law and seeking injunctive relief, including an order voiding any action taken in violation of these amendments. The Court may also require the District to reimburse the claimant’s reasonable attorney’s fees and costs associated with the legal action.

Given the underlying goal of transparency in governance, and the sanctions for non-compliance, an understanding of and adherence to these new legal requirements and the Open Meetings Law overall is critically important. Please reach out to us with any questions or concerns regarding such compliance.