Connecticut Open Meetings Law
From Sunshine Review
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Which government meetings are open to the public?
The meetings of all public agencies, except executive sessions, are open to the public.
No member of the public shall be required, as a condition to attendance at a meeting, to register his name, or furnish other information, or complete a questionnaire or otherwise fulfill any condition precedent to his attendance.
[edit] Meeting process
The votes of each member must be recorded in writing and made available to the public within 48 hours, as well as recorded in the minutes (which must be made available to the public within 7 days of the meeting).
All regular meetings for the coming year must be registered with the Secretary of State by January 31, except for meetings of the General Assembly. (see below) There can be no meetings held within the thirty days from when the schedule is filed.
The agenda of the regular meetings of every public agency, except for the general assembly, must be made available to the public and filed within 24 hours of the meeting in the office or in the clerk's office.
Any business not included in the filed agendas can be considered and acted upon if two-thirds of the members present and voting vote to allkow it.
[edit] Notice
There cannot be less that 24 hours notice of a special meeting, and the notice must be filed in the office of the Secretary of the State for any public agency, in the office of the clerk for any public agency of a political subdivision, and in the office of the clerk of each municipal member for any multitown district or agency.
In addition, written notice must be delivered to the usual place of abode of each member. (This requirement is waived if a member files or telegrams a written waiver of delivery, or if the member is actually present at the meeting when it convenes.)
Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit any agency from adopting more stringent notice requirements.
[edit] Exceptions
Any other provision of the Freedom of Information Act notwithstanding, the General Assembly at the commencement of each regular session in the odd-numbered years, shall adopt, as part of its joint rules, rules to provide notice to the public of its regular, special, emergency or interim committee meetings.
Executive sessions
No other business shall be considered at special meetings.
[edit] If violated
[edit] Relevant legal cases
- See also: Court cases with an impact on state FOIA
Here is a list of open meetings lawsuits in Connecticut. For more information go the page or go to Connecticut sunshine lawsuits.
(The cases are listed alphabetically. To order them by year please click the icon to the right of the Year heading)
We do not currently have any pages on litigation in Connecticut. To add some see our Sunshine litigation project page.
[edit] See Also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
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