(A) Subject to the provisions of this subchapter, the public shall have the right to attend and the right to speak at meetings of public bodies, and all or any part of a meeting of a public body, except for closed sessions called pursuant to § 31.17, may be videotaped, televised, photographed, broadcast, or recorded by any person in attendance by means of a tape recorder, camera, video equipment, or any other means of pictorial or sonic reproduction or in writing.
(B) It shall not be a violation of this section for any public body to make and enforce reasonable rules and regulations regarding the conduct of persons attending, speaking at, videotaping, televising, photographing, broadcasting, or recording its meetings. A public body may not be required to allow citizens to speak at each meeting, nor may it forbid public participation at all meetings.
(C) No public body shall require members of the public to identify themselves as a condition for admission to the meeting. The public body may, however, require any member of the public desiring to address the body to identify himself or herself.
(D) No public body shall, for the purpose of circumventing the provisions of this subchapter, hold a meeting in a place known by the body to be too small to accommodate the anticipated audience.
(E) No public body shall be deemed in violation of this section if it holds its meeting in its traditional meeting place which is located in this state. No public body shall be deemed in violation of this section if it holds a meeting outside of this state if, but only if:
(1) A member entity of the public body is located outside of this state and the meeting is in that member's jurisdiction;
(2) All out-of-state locations identified in the notice are located within public buildings used by members of the entity or at a place which will accommodate the anticipated audience;
(3) Reasonable arrangements are made to accommodate the public's right to attend, hear, and speak at the meeting, including making a telephone conference call available at an instate location to members, the public, or the press, if requested 24 hours in advance;
(4) No more than 25% of the public body's meetings in a calendar year are held out-of-state;
(5) Out-of-state meetings are not used to circumvent any of the public government purposes established in the state Open Meetings Act;
(6) Reasonable arrangements are made to provide viewing at other instate locations for a videoconference meeting if requested 14 days in advance and if economically and reasonably available in the area; and
(7) The public body publishes notice of the out-of-state meeting at least 21 days before the date of the meeting in a legal newspaper of statewide circulation.
(F) The public body shall, upon request, make a reasonable effort to accommodate the public's right to hear the discussion and testimony presented at the meeting.
(G) Public bodies shall make available at the meeting, for examination and copying by members of the public, at least one copy of all reproducible written material to be discussed at an open meeting.
(H) Public bodies shall make available at least one current copy of the Open Meetings Act posted in the meeting room at a location accessible to members of the public. At the beginning of the meeting, the public shall be informed about the location of the posted information.
(Prior Code, § 1-609) (Ord. 1707, passed 10-3-1983; Ord. 1789, passed 4-21-1986; Ord. 2005-2723, passed 2-7-2005; Ord. 2006-2773, passed 7-3-2006)
Statutory reference:
Similar state law provisions, see Neb. RS 84-1412