Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Nonpublic Sessions topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee hears bill to require reasons and times for nonpublic sessions
Summary
Supporters say HB 12-33 would add a sentence to RSA 91-A requiring that motions for nonpublic sessions be tied to specific topics and that minutes record start and end times; witnesses cited Nashua minutes as an example of current redaction and secrecy.
Representative Calvin Bollier, the bill’s prime sponsor, told the House Judiciary Committee HB 12-33 is "a very short, simple bill" that inserts language into RSA 91-A to require that motions for nonpublic session cover only topics directly noted in the motion and that minutes record start and end times.
"When a body goes into non public session, it should only be for things covered specifically in the motion, and that should be noted in the minutes," Bollier said, arguing the change would increase transparency and make it easier to identify bad-faith uses of closed sessions.
Carla Garrick of Right to Know New Hampshire supported the proposal as a technical change that could produce meaningful public records. Garrick and other witnesses said the requirement for start and end times would let the public and journalists spot unusually long closed sessions and follow whether topics discussed in public carried over into closed-door deliberations.
Laurie Ortolano, also testifying for Right to Know New Hampshire, circulated two sets of Nashua minutes that she said showed public presentations followed by lengthy nonpublic minutes. "When they went into non public session around 06:38 and they came out at 07:08," Ortolano said, noting the file contained 38 pages of minutes with only a handful of redactions. She called that an example of why the bill "is valuable" and said the start/end-time requirement would help the public assess whether nonpublic sessions had been abused.
Committee members pressed Bollier on how a generic exemption (for example, "reputation") would be handled in the minutes; Bollier and witnesses said the bill’s requirement that minutes reflect the specific motion and time frames would create a paper trail even if a name could not be made public.
The committee asked questions and heard the testimony before closing the hearing on HB 12-33 and moving on to other items. No committee vote occurred during the hearing.
The committee recessed after the HB 12-33 testimony and scheduled further consideration during its executive session.
The hearing record for HB 12-33 is anchored in the committee transcript beginning when the chair opened the hearing on the bill and ending when the chair closed public testimony.
