Friday, February 05, 2010

More on Sunshine Law

If you want to read more about the Sunshine Law, click here.

From the text of the Open Public Records Act:
d. "Adequate notice" means written advance notice of at least 48 hours, giving the time, date, location and, to the extent known, the agenda of any regular, special or rescheduled meeting, which notice shall accurately state whether formal action may or may not be taken and which shall be (1) prominently posted in at least one public place reserved for such or similar announcements, (2) mailed, telephoned, telegrammed, or hand delivered to at least two newspapers which newspapers shall be designated by the public body to receive such notices because they have the greatest likelihood of informing the public within the area of jurisdiction of the public body of such meetings, one of which shall be the official newspaper, where any such has been designated by the public body or if the public body has failed to so designate, where any has been designated by the governing body of the political subdivision whose geographic boundaries are coextensive with that of the public body and (3) filed with the clerk of the municipality when the public body's geographic boundaries are coextensive with that of a single municipality, with the clerk of the county when the public body's geographic boundaries are coextensive with that of a single county, and with the Secretary of State if the public body has Statewide jurisdiction. For any other public body the filing shall be with the clerk or chief administrative officer of such other public body and each municipal or county clerk of each municipality or county encompassed within the jurisdiction of such public body. Where annual notice or revisions thereof in compliance with section 13 of this act 10:4-18 set forth the location of any meeting, no further notice shall be required for such meeting.

10:4-9. Notice of meetings; exceptions.

a. Except as provided by subsection b. of this section, or for any meeting limited only to consideration of items listed in section 7. b. (10:4-12) no public body shall hold a meeting unless adequate notice thereof has been provided to the public.

b. Upon the affirmative vote of three quarters of the members present a public body may hold a meeting notwithstanding the failure to provide adequate notice if:

(1) such meeting is required in order to deal with matters of such urgency and importance that a delay for the purpose of providing adequate notice would be likely to result in substantial harm to the public interest; and

(2) the meeting is limited to discussion of and acting with respect to such matters of urgency and importance; and

(3) notice of such meeting is provided as soon as possible following the calling of such meeting by posting written notice of the same in the public place described in section 3. d. above (10:4-8), and also by notifying the two newspapers described in section 3. d. by telephone, telegram, or by delivering a written notice of same to such newspapers; and

(4) either (a) the public body could not reasonably have foreseen the need for such meeting at a time when adequate notice could have been provided; or (b) although the public body could reasonably have foreseen the need for such meeting at a time when adequate notice could have been provided, it nevertheless failed to do so.

10:4-9.1. Electronic notice of meeting of public body; terms defined.

In addition to the notice requirements of the "Open Public Meetings Act," P.L.1975, c.231 (C.10:4-6 et seq.), a public body may provide electronic notice of any meeting of the public body through the Internet.

As used in this section, "electronic notice" means advance notice available to the public via electronic transmission of at least 48 hours, giving the time, date, location and, to the extent known, the agenda of any regular, special or rescheduled meeting, which notice shall accurately state whether formal action may or may not be taken at such meeting.

As used in this section, "Internet" means the international computer network of both federal and non-federal interoperable packet switched data networks.

O tempora! O mores!

Remember, the meeting notice that was delivered but not published is just as good as the one that gets in the paper!

--Bernice

1 Comments:

Blogger Maria Pellum, Plainfield Resident said...

Hi Bernice,

Thanks for all the information on this, after reading it, I still have to go and read it again, maybe that is why there is an on-going effort to revise OPRA and Sunshine Laws?

Thanks again!

10:05 AM  

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