Staff Analysis of the Legislation
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HB 397 updates and re-organizes the open meetings and open records laws. While there are some significant substantive changes proposed in the bill, many of the amendments clarify the requirements of existing law. The bill defines a meeting as the "gathering" of a quorum of a board of commissioners or a committee created by the board. E mail messages between commissioners will not be considered a meeting. The bill also enhances the attorney-client privilege relative to the open records act and revised the cost recovery provisions of the law by reducing the per copy fee for standard-sized paper from $.25/page to $.10/page. However, counties can recover the actual cost of producing non-standard sized documents. For a detailed summary click here. The bill was signed by the Governor and became effective April 17, 2012. |