McDonnell weighing legislation to allow public bodies to meet electronically

The office of Gov. Bob McDonnell is considering putting forth legislation that would bring significant changes to Virginia’s open-government laws by allowing public bodies to meet via telephone, video conference and other forms of electronic communication, according to state officials.

Current state law explicitly prohibits local governing bodies, school boards and other official entities from discussing or conducting public business by electronic means without a physical meeting, except in cases of emergency. State-level public bodies are allowed to conduct meetings using electronic communications, but only if a quorum is physically assembled at one location and other conditions are met.

The governor’s Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring, which focuses on improving government efficiency and transparency, recommended “modernizing” the state’s sunshine laws at a meeting Wednesday in Richmond. A McDonnell spokeswoman said Thursday that officials are considering turning the proposal into legislation for the next session of the General Assembly.

“Basically, this was a recommendation by the commission last year,” said McDonnell spokeswoman Taylor Thornley. “And it’s something that they’re recommending again this year and … we are considering taking this recommendation and turning it into legislation for the coming General Assembly session.”

No legislation ever materialized after last year’s recommendation.

The text of last year’s recommendation states that the changes should allow the public to listen to meetings remotely in the hopes of cutting down on costs.

“The amendment should allow the public to observe or listen to meetings remotely from the home or from a designated government facility,” the report reads. “The inability to do this under the current law dramatically adds to the cost of public organizations and significantly limits effectiveness.”

The recommendation also lays out 10 specific conditions that must be met before electronic meetings are allowed.

At least one member of the public body must be physically present at the primary meeting location, which must be accessible to the public and identified in a public notice that also clearly states which type of electronic medium is to be used. Meetings would be suspended if any interruption of the “communication link” occurs at either the main location or any optional secondary locations. The conditions also specify that no more than half of the public meetings in a calendar year could be held electronically.

Megan H. Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, said her group will be watching the proposal as it progresses. While the plan could provide some benefits in terms of efficiency, Rhyne said, there are also many ways the public could be cut out of the process if meetings begin to turn into “call-in affairs.”

“If you can provide a mechanism for people to be able to view these meetings from the comfort of their home, that’s great, but you can do that by webcasting existing meetings,” Rhyne said. “The particular mechanism that they are proposing ... they’re two separate issues.”

Rhyne also said the process by which the governor’s commission arrived at its recommendation has not been a model of openness.

“The workgroups that studied this did not give notice of their meetings,” Rhyne said. “So this wasn’t exactly something we could’ve participated in up to this point.”

Ginger Stanley, executive director of the Virginia Press Association, shared similar concerns, saying she had seen no meeting notices or agendas for the commission’s five workgroups, which reported to the full commission on Wednesday.

Thornley stressed the fact that all of the workgroups’ recommendations are made public.

“Since April, the workgroups have been working in closed meetings,” Thornley said. “But all of their recommendations that are made to the commission are made publicly.”

Stanley said she attended Wednesday’s meeting as a representative of the state’s newspaper industry, and the fact that the electronic-meeting recommendation again surfaced is reason to take note.

“I think that it is of a concern because this is the second year that they have advanced this thought,” Stanley said.

Rhyne said she’s not sure whether any legislative proposal might make it through the General Assembly.

“They’re getting ready to change,” Rhyne said. “If they want to change rules for allowing more electronic meetings, it is scary to us that that came about through a process that was not noticed to the public.”