After two years of operating under a state emergency proclamation, pandemic-related measures for public meetings and public records will be lifted on June 1, 2022.

Open public meetings

Effective June 1, Proclamation 20-28 will be rescinded. At that time, meetings subject to the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) are no longer required to be held remotely. Beginning June 1, meetings must have a physical location; however, cities can continue to provide members of the public or governing body remote access to meetings by phone, video, or internet streaming per local policy or practice.

Impacts of HB 1329 on open public meetings

While Proclamation 20-28 will be rescinded on June 1, HB 1329 modifying the emergency provisions of the OPMA is effective as of March 24. Under this bill, a city may elect to hold meetings remotely if a public agency determines that an in-person public meeting cannot be held with reasonable safety due to a local, state, or federally declared emergency. As the state is still in a declared state of emergency for COVID-19 under Proclamation 20-05, agencies have the option to conduct remote meetings or to limit in-person under this revision to the law.

Public Records Act

Additionally, with the expiration of Proclamation 20-28, effective June 1, cities are once again required to allow reasonable use of their facilities for copying public records. The requirement to provide the initial five-day response requirement is also reinstated.

MRSC article

On May 2, MRSC published an in-depth article discussing the impacts and nuances of these upcoming changes. We encourage you to review the article and speak with your legal counsel as you plan to move forward with these changes.