Iowa Open Meetings Law
From Sunshine Review
Contents |
Which government meetings are open to the public?
[edit] Meeting process
Meetings of governmental bodies must be preceded by public notice and held in open session unless closed sessions are expressly permitted by law. All actions and discussions at meetings of governmental bodies must be conducted and executed in open session.
Each governmental body must keep minutes of all its meetings showing the date, time and place, the members present, and the action taken at each meeting. The minutes must show the results of each vote taken and the vote of each member present. The vote of each member present must be made public at the open session. The minutes must be public records open to public inspection.
Notice
A governmental body must give the public reasonable notice of the time, date, and place of each meeting, and its tentative agenda. Reasonable notice includes informing news media who have requested such notice, posting the notice publicly in an easily accessible manner, and giving such notice at least twenty-four hours in advance (unless such notice is impractical or impossible). News of the meeting is to be posted at the office of the body holding the meeting, or, if no such office exists, at the building in which the meeting is to be held. Each meeting shall be held at a place reasonably accessible to the public, and at a time reasonably convenient to the public (unless such a place or time is impossible or impractical). If either reasonable notice and access are deemed impossible, the reasons shall be stated in the minutes.
A formally constituted subunit of a parent governmental body may conduct a meeting without notice during a lawful meeting of the parent governmental body, a recess in that meeting, or immediately following that meeting, if the meeting of the subunit is publicly announced at the parent meeting and the subject of the meeting reasonably coincides with the subjects discussed or acted upon by the parent governmental body. If another section of the Code requires a manner of giving specific notice of a meeting, hearing, or an intent to take action by a governmental body, compliance with that section must constitute compliance with the notice requirements of this section.
[edit] Exceptions
A governmental body may hold a closed session only by affirmative public vote of either two-thirds of the members of the body or all of the members present at the meeting. A governmental body may hold a closed session for the following reasons:
Executive sessions
[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 Iowa. For more information go the page or go to Iowa sunshine lawsuits.
(The cases are listed alphabetically. To order them by year please click the icon to the right of the Year heading)
| Lawsuit | Year |
|---|---|
| Dobrovolny v. Reinhardt | 1970 |
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
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