PHOENIX — Arizona’s top prosecutor is providing advice to state and local agencies on how to meet their legal obligations under the open meeting law in the face of COVID-19.
The answer is technology.
In an informal legal opinion issued Friday, Attorney General Mark Brnovich said the state’s open meeting law allows public bodies to hold remote meetings.
He said that could mean having board or council members at remote locations, connected to each other electronically.
Or board members might decide to meet at a central location but not allow public attendance to minimize the risk of spreading disease, Brnovich said.
The key is public notice — and lots of it, far in advance of any meeting, he said. People must be told how they can attend — or at view — public meetings.
That, in turn, means providing a website location for a video conference and directions on how to access the meeting. And if the meeting will be telephonic, people need a number to call in to be able to hear.
Nothing in state law requires public bodies to allow members of the audience to speak as long as they are allowed to witness what business takes place, Brnovich said.
