Senate committee reviews S.59 changes to Vermont open meetings law, debates carve-outs and executive session rules

The Senate Committee on Government Operations on Feb. 20 began a line-by-line review of S.59, a bill that would amend Vermont's Open Meeting Law to clarify definitions, update the undue-hardship standard for access accommodations, and add a new basis for entering executive session to discuss interest rates on publicly financed loans.

At the committee meeting, Tucker Anderson, legislative counsel, walked members through the bill and said the proposal would split the statute's definition of "public body" and expressly carve out annual municipal meetings from that definition. "Annual meetings are not subject to the open meeting law because there is no public body involved," Anderson told the panel. Senator Ruth Hardy, sponsor of the bill, said the measure primarily cleans up language enacted last year and is intended as a vehicle for corrections, not for creating new exemptions.

The bill would (1) create a new subdivision excluding traditional annual municipal gatherings and representative town meetings from the definition of "public body;" (2) revise the statutory test for an "undue hardship" when a member of the public requests accommodation (for example, to…