Committee hears amendments to Open Meetings Act to restore notice language and clarify posting duties

Committee counsel Benson Wallace introduced amendments AM 10:38 and AM 11:45 to LB243 during a Government, Military and Veteran Affairs Committee hearing on Oct. 12, 2025. The amendments would restore language to the Nebraska Open Meetings Act that was inadvertently removed by last session's LB287 and clarify how public notice must be published when a newspaper fails to run a scheduled edition or when a statewide website is unavailable.

Wallace told the committee the amendment "replaces the missing language verbatim" and would recodify existing publication practices. He said the amendment also clarifies that a public body should request that the Nebraska Press Association (NPA) post a notice on its statewide website, rather than attempt to post directly to a privately operated site. "AM 10:38 clarifies that it is the public body's responsibility to request that the posting...not to directly change the contents of this privately operated website," he said. Wallace added the amendment includes availability language so a public body can still provide notice if the statewide website is hacked or taken offline.

Lynn Rex, representing the League of Nebraska Municipalities, described the amendments as "clarifying" and said pages 7–11 of the handout show language being reinstated that she called antiquated and therefore appropriate for removal where obsolete, but necessary where it had been inadvertently stricken. Rex emphasized the amendment's insertion of the phrase "if available" in several statutory lines to allow alternative notice if the statewide site is not accessible: "We've had a few cities that have had their websites hacked and everything shuts down. So we just wanna make sure that a public body and a public meeting could go ahead and proceed," she said.

Elaine Menzel, testifying for the Nebraska Association of County Officials, and Colby Coash for the Nebraska Association of School Boards, both said their organizations support the amendment and concur with committee counsel and the League's analysis. Menzel asked the committee to advance the amendment so problems discovered in last session's statutory changes can be corrected; Coash said reinstating the language will prevent a problem the groups hope never occurs, such as an inaccessible statewide website.

According to testimony, the two substantive fixes are: (1) restoring statutory publication-method and content requirements for public notices, including agendas, that were removed inadvertently; and (2) creating a workable path for public bodies when a newspaper neglects or is unable to publish a notice and when the private statewide posting site is unavailable. The amendment also documents that a public body must submit notice material to a newspaper in a manner that allows the newspaper to demonstrate the body met its notice obligation.

No committee vote on LB243 or the amendments was recorded during the hearing; testimony concluded with proponents from the League, county officials and school boards. The committee indicated an intention to include the changes in its second committee-priority package for the session, but did not take a recorded action during this meeting.