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Senate amends open meetings law to clarify hybrid rules, executive session language
Summary
The Vermont Senate on March 19 approved committee amendments to S.59, a cleanup of recent open meeting law changes that clarifies "undue burden" standards, exempts site inspections from hybrid-meeting rules and tightens agenda and executive-session procedures.
The Vermont Senate considered S.59, an amendment package to the state's open meeting law that the committee described as a cleanup following a substantial post‑COVID overhaul.
Senator Ruth Hardy and the Committee on Government Operations reported the bill section by section. Changes include amending 1 V.S.A. § 310 to revise the definition of "undue burden" (clarifying consideration of availability of necessary personnel rather than "insufficient personnel"); amending 1 V.S.A. § 312 to exempt site inspections and field visits from the hybrid meeting requirement for public bodies; requiring agendas to include "sufficient details" about matters to be discussed and to use a specific term when a proposed executive session is included; and amending 1 V.S.A. § 313 to add a procedure requiring a vote to close executive sessions the same way a body votes to enter an executive session and to add a new basis for an executive session to discuss interest-rate information on public finance loans.
Floor questions focused on who determines whether an agenda's detail is "sufficient," whether the proposed agenda language could constrain the ability to enter an executive session midmeeting, and the committee chair agreed to review wording before third reading. Senator Hardy described the bill as cleaning up language from last session's major update and responding to feedback on how the new law is working.
The Senate adopted the committee amendment and ordered the bill to third reading.
