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House amends S.59 to let towns use outside recorders, post special-meeting notices in neighboring towns
Summary
The House amendments to S.59 clarify local recording rules for municipal public bodies, add an explicit “or cause to record” clause allowing third-party recording, extend a site-visit exemption to local recording, and permit posting special‑meeting notices in neighboring municipalities.
The Senate Government Operations Committee on May 27 reviewed House changes to S.59 that clarify how municipal public bodies must record meetings and where they may post special‑meeting notices. Tucker Anderson, legislative counsel, told the committee the House added language allowing municipalities to “record or cause to record” meetings and to post notices in neighboring municipalities.
The committee was shown a side‑by‑side of the Senate and House versions. Anderson said municipal public bodies remain required to record meetings unless those bodies are purely advisory, but the House added a phrase—“or cause to record”—to make clear a town may use a third party such as a local television station to meet the recording requirement. “The House updated the shall record requirement to include a clause that says or cause to record,” Anderson said.
The House also inserted a clause allowing municipalities to post special‑meeting notices in a neighboring municipality, intended for places without highly trafficked physical locations. Anderson said the change “allows them to post in a neighboring municipality” and noted that any designated posting locations must still be set at a public meeting, so the public will not face surprise notice locations.
Committee members asked whether “neighboring” has a legal definition; the staff response was that the House used the common meaning—adjacent or adjoining municipalities. Anderson flagged a concern raised outside the committee that the change allows any municipality, not only small or rural ones, to post in a neighbor, because the draft contains no trigger limiting the option to municipalities lacking high‑traffic posting sites.
The House also extended to local recording requirements the site‑inspection and field‑visit exception that the Senate had already applied to state public bodies’ hybrid‑meeting rules. Anderson said the House reasoned it would match the state‑level exemption and that the addition would exempt site inspections and field visits from local recording duties.
The committee did not take a final vote on S.59 and deferred further action; members asked for additional review in the morning before the Senate floor session.
