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Sponsors
Senator · Senate District 59
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to investigations and government operations
- Referred to investigations and government operations
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Authorizes broadcasting of open meetings of an agency or department
In Assembly Committee · Governmental Operations · Sponsor Amy Paulin
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S4776
Title of bill
An act to amend the public officers law, in relation to broadcasting open meetings of an agency or department
Purpose or general idea of bill
To require meetings of public bodies covered by the Open Meetings Law to be streamed in real-time and to be posted on the agency's website, to the extent practicable.
Summary of specific provisions
Section 1 amends Section 103 of the public officers law, by adding a new subdivision (f), which provides that open meetings of an agency shall be broadcast to the public and maintained as records to the extent practicable, as determined by the agency or the department. If an agency maintains a regularly and routinely updated website and utilizes a high speed connection, it shall stream its open meetings in real-time and post them on its website within a reasonable time after the meetings, to the extent practicable This section also provides that an agency may, but is not required to, expend additional funds to implement these provisions.
Section 2 provides that the act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall have become a law.
Justification
In many instances, open meetings are not reasonably available to be viewed by the public. The time at which they are usually scheduled prevents people who work or go to school to participate. Also, people with physical disabilities might have further difficulties in participating.
This legislation would not increase the burdens imposed on agencies. Public bodies would be required to stream and post the meetings only if they already maintain a regularly and routinely updated website and if they already utilize a high speed internet connection. An agency may, but is not required to, spend additional money to implement the provisions of this legislation. This legislation would help increase transparency by allowing people to virtually participate in open meetings, without imposing additional burdens to state agencies. Moreover, making the content of these meetings easily available to the public would reduce the likelihood of repeated questions to the agency, the impact of misinformation, and the number of individual FOIL requests broadcasting open meetings of an agency or department.
Prior legislative history
This is a new bill.
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall have became a law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.