Tennessee proposal would make it easier for public bodies to meet secretly

A legislative committee decided Tuesday to allow members of state and local boards to meet in secret more often. Currently, Tennessee (and Florida) has one of the best open meeting law provisions in the nation by requiring a governing body to follow open meeting procedures if just two members are meeting together. The proposed rule change would allow up to a quorum of any board or commission to meet without following the open meetings law, which is consistent with most states (39 by my count in looking at the Reporters Committee Open Government Guide summaries). The justification for the proposed change is that it's not fair to require officials to follow the open meeting law if two of the board members happen to get together. However, that's already covered by the open meeting law by allowing "chance" encounters. Here is a state that has a good provision in its open meeting law, one that other states should adopt, while at the same time accounts for the reality of day-to-day interactions of officials and chance enounters. It's a great law for citizens and officials. Why tinker with it if it ain't broken? See story.