Kentucky Open Meetings Act
From Sunshine Review
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Which government meetings are open to the public?
For the purposes of the Kentucky open meetings laws, a "meeting" means all gatherings of a public agency of every kind, including video teleconferences, regardless of where the meeting is held, whether they are regular meetings or special and informational or casual gatherings held in anticipation of or in conjunction with a regular or special meeting. [1]
"Public agencies" include:
- Every state or local government board, commission, and authority;
- Every state or local legislative board, commission, and committee;
- Every county and city governing body, council, school district board, special district board, and municipal corporation;
- Every state or local government agency, including the policy-making board of an institution of education, created by or pursuant to state or local statute, executive order, ordinance, resolution, or other legislative act;
- Any body created by or pursuant to state or local statute, executive order, ordinance, resolution, or other legislative act in the legislative or executive branch of government; any entity when the majority of its governing body is appointed by a "public agency;"
- Any board, commission, committee, subcommittee, ad hoc committee, advisory committee, council, or agency, except for a committee of a hospital medical staff or a committee formed for the purpose of evaluating the qualifications of public agency employees; and
- Any interagency body of two (2) or more public agencies.
[edit] Meeting process
Any meeting of a public agency in Kentucky must be held at a specific time and place that is convenient to the public. All public agencies must provide for a schedule of regular meetings in their ordinances, orders, resolutions or bylaws or by whatever means is typical to that public agency. This schedule of regular meetings must be made available to the public.
Minutes
Minutes of action must be taken at every meeting of any public agency, setting forth an accurate record of votes and action at such meetings. These minutes must be promptly recorded and all records must be made open and available to public inspection at reasonable times no later than immediately following the next meeting of the body.
[edit] Exceptions
All meetings of public agencies in Kentucky which have a quorum of members, where public business is discussed or action is taken by the public agency must be open to the public at all times, subject to the following exceptions:
- Deliberations for decisions of the Kentucky Parole Board;
- Deliberations on the future acquisition or sale of real property by a public agency, but only when publicity would be likely to affect the value of a specific piece of property to be acquired for public use or sold by a public agency;
- Discussions of proposed or pending litigation against or on behalf of the public agency;
- Grand and petit jury sessions;
- Collective bargaining negotiations between public employers and their employees or their representatives;
- Discussions or hearings which might lead to the appointment, discipline, or dismissal of an individual employee, member, or student without restricting that employee's, member's, or student's right to a public hearing if requested. This should not be interpreted to permit the discussion of general personnel matters in secret.
- Discussions between a public agency and a representative of a business entity and discussions concerning a specific proposal, if open discussions would jeopardize the siting, retention, expansion, or upgrading of the business;
- State and local cabinet meetings and executive cabinet meetings;
- Committees of the General Assembly other than standing committees;
- Deliberations of judicial or quasi-judicial bodies regarding individual adjudications or appointments, at which neither the person involved, his representatives, nor any other individual not a member of the agency's governing body or staff is present, but not including any meetings of planning commissions, zoning commissions, or boards of adjustment;
- Meetings which federal or state law specifically require to be conducted in privacy;
- Meetings which the Constitution provides shall be held in secret; and
- A portion of a meeting devoted to a discussion of a specific public record exempted from disclosure under KRS 61.878(1)(m). This portion of the meeting should not be closed to any member of the Kentucky General Assembly, however.
Discussions between individual members are not prohibited when the purpose of the discussion is to educate members on specific issues.
Executive sessions
In order to conduct closed sessions, the public agency must honor the following requirements:
- The agency must give notice in a regular open meeting of the general nature or of the business to be conducted in the closed session, the reason for the closed session and the specific provision of this statute authorizing the closed session;
- Closed sessions may be held only after a motion is made and carried by a majority vote in an open, public session
- No final action may be taken at a closed session; and
- No matters may be discussed at a closed session other than those publicly announced in the open meeting prior to the closed session.
[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 Kentucky. For more information go the page or go to Kentucky 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 Kentucky. To add some see our Sunshine litigation project page.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
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