Bill > S2002

This bill seeks to enhance public access to deliberations of public bodies and improve the efficiency of such bodies. It does this by: 1. Expanding the definition of "deliberation" to include "materials" related to a procedural meeting. 2. Modifying the definition of "meeting" to include participation by members of a public body in a "Public Internet Discussion" - an online discussion that is open to public monitoring, where participants are authenticated, and no formal votes or actions can be taken. 3. Requiring all deliberations to occur either at in-person meetings, public internet discussions, or other specific exempted gatherings. 4. Establishing notice requirements for both in-person meetings and public internet discussions, including details on how to access the online discussions. 5. Specifying that there is no concept of physical location for public internet discussions, and the public must have the same access to view the proceedings as the public body members. 6. Requiring detailed minutes to be kept for both in-person meetings and public internet discussions, with all information exchanged during the online discussions being freely accessible. The overall aim is to enhance transparency and accessibility of public deliberations, while also allowing for more efficient online discussions among public body members.