F.O.I.A. ... now let's see where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah! It is that Freedom of Information thing. You know, that thing where at either the National or State Laws clarify a citizen's right to access public documents. This law also dictates the criteria for the definition of a public meeting and whereby public meetings must be announced and when those announcements must be made.
There was an area of F.O.I.A., which for me, seemed a bit gray until recent pokes and prods from individuals caused me to go back to look at the law and some of the interpretations of the law. (Investigation into the matter made the answers seem even more gray than before when answers arrived indicating that
yes public meetings are public meetings except when their not public meetings, and it doesn't matter if they are public meetings or not if the topics of discussion are not specific to a specific issue, yet it can be about the general aspects of an issue, except, of course, for those times when it isn't:)
Okay, I'll quit playing around and get to the issue ...
What would happen if a group of citizens invited the local 'body politic' to attend a gathering and 3 or more of those officials attended? Does this, in and of itself constitute a public meeting? Perhaps the most salient discussion on this can be found in the form of a
FOI Advisory Council Opinion (AO-15-04, July 19, 2004) found on the website of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government.
This opinion was written in response to a question by a citizen who also provided specific details of that meeting. Following a brief discussion of '
Beck v. Shelton' ( a court case where 3 members of the same council attended a citizen-organized meeting to discuss traffic and safety issues), the differences between these two events were noted. In the first instance, it was deemed a FOI violation had occurred because of the combination of the presence of 3 members of a Board in an environment where the topic concerned issues that were currently before that political group for decision. In the '
Beck v. Shelton' case, although there were a sufficient number of elected officials present, the content of the discussion did not involve any issue currently before that group.
Simply take the time to read the Advisory Council Opinion above and see what you think. Personally, I think the law could be a bit clearer and a lot of misunderstandings would be corrected. Then there is always that other issue that comes into play when you are dealing with politicians....trust. If you know that several people attended a meeting but you were not there, can you trust them when they tell you that no business specific to the jurisdiction was discussed (by business I mean a topic directly related to issues that are being dealt with currently) and that it was informational only, or that all discussion was totally unrelated to the business of the jurisdiction.
In short, it seems that in a situation where the meeting was held to address a specific issue, it feel within the perview of FOI. Where the meeting is held as a general exchange of information with citizens or a group, this does not fall under FOI.
Perhaps most importantly, when the 'waters of FOIA/FOI are murky', consider taking the time to go to the Virginia Coalition for Open Government website and look at some of the opinions available there. If you don't find an answer, the contact them with a question (you can do it directly at the website). One thing I learned real early in life, growing up in bayou country, if you can't see the bottom of the pond/bayou/lake, take the time to check the depth with a pole before diving in head first!