Prescott Valley council receives open-meeting-law training from Arizona Ombudsman

Prescott Valley, Ariz. — The Prescott Valley Town Council met in a special session March 13 for an hour-long training on Arizona's open meeting and public records laws led via Zoom by Danny Giron, senior staff attorney at the Arizona Ombudsman's Office.

Giron told the council the open meeting law is a set of statutes intended to maximize transparency when multi-member public bodies discuss, deliberate or take action. He reviewed core requirements including posting a standing notice with the locations used for meeting notices, providing a public notice at least 24 hours before meetings, publishing a clear agenda, allowing public access and keeping minutes or recordings of every meeting.

The training emphasized why those steps matter. "All actions, all collective decisions that your body makes need to be taken out of public meeting," Giron said, describing minutes and recordings as permanent records and…