Testimony to House Government Operations Committee
Regarding Open Meeting Law
Samantha Sheehan, Municipal Policy and Advocacy Specialist, VLCT
April 1, 2025
Clarify Open Meeting Law
VLCT seeks further changes to S.59 to enable compliance and ensure consistency of application and judicial interpretation.
These recommendations, collected and vetted by VLCT’s Municipal Assistance Center (MAC), a team of experienced attorneys who provide confidential legal guidance to municipal officials, have arisen directly from questions, concerns, and confusion from municipal staff, boards, and commissions attempting to comply with recent changes to the law.
Managing Digital Records
Public Safety and Security
Issues of Compliance: Create "Working Group" Exemption
An "Advisory Body" is exempt from Open Meeting Law. A quorum of the Public Body is not. This creates unequal application of the law for small town governments.
A "working group” is commonly used to describe occasions where some members of a public body gather to perform some delegated, time-limited work including research, outreach, or policy development. This is a common practice for small communities who rely on volunteer work by elected officials due to a lack of municipal staff available to advise the selectboard on the wide range of issues it must consider.
Illustrating Working Groups
Meeting Agenda: A City Council and Town Selectboard each want to brainstorm ideas for how to support outdoor recreation activities using their legal trail network.
City A: Has a Town Manager form of government and an eight-person city council, a Director for Parks and Recreation on staff, an advisory citizen commission for Parks and Rec, and a three-person Budget Committee of the Council.
Town B: Has a three-person selectboard and no municipal staff, there is a two-person Budget Committee of the board and a volunteer Town Pride Club that organizes volunteer actions, events, and holiday celebrations.