Bill > SF787

This bill modifies Minnesota's open meeting laws to allow for more flexible remote participation by public bodies. Currently, there are restrictions on how many times a member can participate remotely from a non-public location, with specific exceptions for military service or medical reasons. The proposed changes would remove these limitations, effectively allowing unlimited remote participation while maintaining key transparency requirements. Specifically, the bill ensures that during remote meetings, all participating members must still be able to see and hear each other, all discussion and testimony must be audible and visible, at least one member must be physically present at the regular meeting location, and all votes must be conducted by roll call to clearly identify each member's vote. The notice requirements are also updated to simply indicate that some members may participate remotely, without needing to specify the exact locations of remote participants. These modifications aim to provide public bodies with greater flexibility in conducting meetings while preserving the core principles of open government and public accessibility.

Government Affairs

https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/bill.php?b=Senate&f=SF0787&ssn=0&y=2025