Source: http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/open-meetings-laws-ohio
Timestamp: 2018-12-18 23:41:11
Document Index: 713613332

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 121', '§ 121', '§ 121', '§ 121', '§ 121', '§ 121']

Open Meetings Laws in Ohio | Digital Media Law Project
The Ohio Open Meetings Act provides the public with a right of access to the meetings of a large number of government bodies at the state and local level in Ohio. The law entitles you to notice of these meetings and gives you the ability to inspect and copy meeting minutes. For more detailed information about Ohio's Open Meetings Act, please consult the Ohio Attorney General's excellent guide, the 2012 Sunshine Laws Manual. It has detailed yet understandable explanations of the most important aspects of the state's open meetings and open records laws. For additional information, see the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press's Open Government Guide: Ohio.
The Ohio Open Meetings Act does not apply to all government bodies in Ohio. It only covers "public bodies," a term with a specific legal definition. The law defines "public body" broadly to include most government bodies (i.e., entities made up of more than one member) that make decisions on matters of public business. At the state government level, the term "public body" means "any board, commission, committee, council, or similar decision-making body of a state agency, institution, or authority." Ohio Rev. Code § 121.22(B)(1)(a) (scroll down to version effective as of 2-12-2008). At the local government level, a "public body" is "any legislative authority or board, commission, committee, council, agency, authority, or similar decision-making body of any county, township, municipal corporation, school district, or other political subdivision or local public institution." Ohio Rev. Code § 121.22(B)(1)(a). At both the state and local government level, the term "public body" also includes any committee of one of the above-described public bodies. See Ohio Rev. Code § 121.22(B)(1)(b).
Some examples of public bodies include the Ohio Elections Commission, the Ohio State Board of Education and its committees, boards of county commissioners, county boards of elections, city councils, city and town zoning boards, and local school boards. The Open Meetings Act does not apply to a single government official acting in his or her individual capacity. It also does not apply to the state legislature (which has its own rules requiring that sessions be open to the public), the judiciary, or federal government bodies. The Open Meetings Act identifies certain public bodies and types of gatherings that are exempt from the requirements of the Open Meetings Act:
The Ohio Attorney General's guide, the 2012 Sunshine Laws Manual, has a great deal of additional information about what government bodies are covered by the Open Meetings Act.
The right to attend meetings is not necessarily meaningful without proper notice of those meetings. To address this issue, Ohio law requires public bodies to provide advance notice of their meetings to the public. Unlike most states, however, Ohio does not impose specific requirements for how far in advance notice must be given. Instead, the law provides that each public body will establish by rule "a reasonable method whereby any person may determine the time and place of all regularly scheduled meetings and the time, place, and purpose of all special meetings." Ohio Rev. Code § 121.11(F).
For information on your ability to use recording devices at public meetings, see Ohio Recording Law.
The general rule is that all meetings of public bodies must be open to the public. If a public body wants to hold a closed or "executive" session, it must identify a specific statutory exemption. Under the Ohio Open Meetings Act, a public body may hold a closed session when it is dealing with one of seven subject-area exemptions found in Ohio Rev. Code § 121.22(G). The seven exemptions are for meetings dealing with the following topics:
A handful of public bodies may close their meetings to the public when dealing with additional topics, listed in Ohio Rev. Code § 121.22(E). To do so, however, the members must unanimously vote to close the meeting. See page 14 of the Attorney General's guide for details.
For more information on the exceptions to the open-meetings requirements, see the 2012 Sunshine Laws Manual and the Open Government Guide: Ohio.
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