House bill NO. 890

INTRODUCED BY B. Barker, S. Kerns, C. Knudsen, T. Brockman, P. Green, J. Etchart

By Request of the ****

A BILL FOR AN ACT ENTITLED: "AN ACT PROVIDING FOR INCREASED TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN GOVERNMENT BY REQUIRING CERTAIN GOVERNMENT ENTITIES TO RECORD THEIR PUBLIC MEETINGS IN AUDIO AND VIDEO FORMAT; REQUIRING THOSE ENTITIES TO MAKE THE AUDIO AND VIDEO RECORDINGS AVAILABLE ONLINE FOLLOWING THE PUBLIC MEETING; PROVIDING EXCEPTIONS; PROVIDING AN APPROPRIATION; superseding the local government unfunded mandate laws; AMENDING SECTIONS 2-3-214 AND 7-1-4141, MCA; AND PROVIDING EFFECTIVE DATES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MONTANA:

Section 1. Section 2-3-214, MCA, is amended to read:

"2-3-214. Recording of meetings for certain boards. (1) Except as provided in 2-3-203 and subsection (6) of this section, the following boards shall record their public meetings in a an audio and video or audio format:

(a) the board of investments provided for in 2-15-1808;

(b) the public employees' retirement board provided for in 2-15-1009;

(d) the board of public education provided for in Article X, section 9, of the Montana constitution; and

(e) the board of regents of higher education provided for in Article X, section 9, of the Montana constitution;

(f) except as provided in subsection (7)(a), the governing board of a county provided for in Title 7, chapter 1, part 21;

(g) except as provided in subsection (7)(b), the governing board of a first-class and second-class city provided for in Title 7, chapter 1, part 41;

(h) a first-class or second-class school district board of trustees provided for in Article X, section 8, of the Montana constitution, 20-6-201, and 20-6-301; and

(i) a local board of health provided for in Title 50, chapter 2, part 1.

(2) All good faith efforts to record meetings in a video format must be made, but if a board is unable to record a meeting in a video format, it must record the meeting in an audio format.

(3)(2) (a) The boards listed in subsection (1) must subsections (1)(a) through (1)(e) shall make the audio and video or audio recordings of meetings under subsection (1) publicly available within 1 business day after the meeting through broadcast on the state government broadcasting service as provided in 5-11-1111 or through publication of streaming audio and video or audio content on the respective board's website.

(b) The boards listed in subsections (1)(f) through (1)(i) shall make the audio and video recordings publicly available within 5 business days after the meeting with a link to the recording on the respective board's website. If the board does not maintain a website, it shall maintain a social media page and provide a link to the recording on the social media page.

(b)(c) The department of administration may develop a memorandum of understanding with the legislative services division for broadcasting executive branch content on the state government broadcasting service or live-streaming audio or video executive branch content over the internet.

(3) For the boards listed in subsections (1)(f) through (1)(i) that maintain minutes as required by 2-3-212, the audio and video recordings created pursuant to this section are not required to be the official record of the meeting. If a recording is not designated as the official record, the recording may be destroyed after being retained online for 1 year and is not subject to the requirements of Title 2, chapter 6, for public information requests.

(4) A board is not required to disrupt or reschedule a meeting if there is a technological failure of the meeting recording. If the recording is not able to be made available online, the board shall prominently post a notice in the same manner as a notice of a public meeting and shall post a notice at all locations where the meeting recording links are available. The notice must explain the reason the meeting was not recorded and describe the steps taken to remedy the failure prior to the next meeting.

(5) The requirements of this section apply only when a board is acting on a matter over which the board has supervision, control, jurisdiction, or advisory power at a public meeting as defined in 2-3-202 that has been publicly noticed as required by 2-3-103.

(6) The requirements of this section do not apply to a board listed in subsection (1)(f) when a quorum is incidentally established as described in 7-5-2122(4) and (5) solely on the basis of sharing a common office space.

(7) The following boards must meet the requirements of this section, except that meetings may be recorded, retained, and made available in audio format only:

(a) the governing board of a county with a population of less than 4,500; and

(b) the governing board of a third-class city.

(8) Expenditures by a school district on staff, consultants, equipment, software licenses, storage, or security made to fulfill the requirements of this section qualify as a school facility project under 20-9-525."

Section 2. Section 7-1-4141, MCA, is amended to read:

"7-1-4141. Public meeting required. (1) All meetings of municipal governing bodies, boards, authorities, committees, or other entities created by a municipality shall must be open to the public except as provided in 2-3-203.

(2) Appropriate minutes shall Subject to the requirements of 2-3-212, appropriate minutes must be kept of all public meetings and shall must be made available upon request to the public for inspection and copying and meet the requirements of 2-3-214(2)(b)."

Section 3. Appropriation. There is appropriated $5,000 from the state general fund to the department of administration for the biennium beginning July 1, 2023, for the purposes of adopting administrative rules under 2-17-518 to provide guidance and best practices for the local governments entities in [section 1(1)(f) through (1)(i)] to create audio and video meeting recordings and store and make the records publicly available online.

Section 4. Unfunded mandate laws superseded. The provisions of [this act] expressly supersede and modify the requirements of 1-2-112 through 1-2-116.

Section 5. Effective dates. (1) Except as provided in subsection (2), [this act] is effective July 1, 2024.

(2) [Section 3] and this section are effective July 1, 2023.