OpenMeetingLaw

Open meeting law

Montana's open meeting law is broad. In the City's own words on the subject, it "essentially makes any gathering of a majority of the City Commission, Neighborhood Councils, or any City-appointed board or commission subject to the open meeting law."

The governing sections are MCA 2-3-202, which defines a meeting, and MCA 7-1-4141, which applies to local government units.

The practical consequences you can see in the record:

Agendas are posted ahead of every meeting of every body listed on BoardsAndCommissions, not only the CityCommission
When three or more Commissioners are likely to be in the same room at an event the City did not call, the CityClerk posts a quorum notice. See QuorumNotices
Closed sessions are rare and narrow. The Commission's executive sessions in the record are litigation matters and the City Manager's annual evaluation, and even those show up on the agenda with the subject named
Minutes are prepared for every meeting and are themselves public records

Because the law reaches appointed bodies as well as elected ones, the nine NeighborhoodCouncils and every advisory board post notices too, which is why the Agenda Center carries several hundred meeting rows a year.

City page on open meeting law: https://greatfallsmt.gov/458/Montana-Open-Meeting-Laws MCA 2-3-202: https://leg.mt.gov/bills/mca/title_0020/chapter_0030/part_0020/section_0020/0020-0030-0020-0020.html

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Revision 1, last edited 2021-10-14T10:02:00Z by MissouriBends.