Senate concurs with House changes to open-meetings bill; narrows disorderly-conduct standard

The Vermont Senate on May 20, 2025, voted to concur in the House's amended version of S.59, a bill that revises provisions of the state's open meeting law and narrows when authorities may cite disorderly conduct at public meetings.

S.59 originally amended several open-meeting requirements; the House added a set of additional changes the Senate agreed to, a senator speaking for the bill said. The amendments specify that the bill applies "exclusively to state public bodies," permit municipalities to satisfy the bill's recording requirement by allowing a third party (for example, a TV station) to record meetings, and allow municipalities to post notices of special meetings in neighboring municipalities where a central posting place does not exist.

The House amendments also require that when a public body lists a proposed executive session on an agenda it must indicate the nature of that session, and expand the list of people…