A. Unless otherwise provided by joint house and senate rule, all meetings of any committee or policy-making body of the legislature held for the purpose of discussing public business or for the purpose of taking any action within the authority of or the delegated authority of the committee or body are declared to be public meetings open to the public at all times. Reasonable notice of meetings shall be given to the public by publication or by the presiding officer of each house prior to the time the meeting is scheduled.

B. The provisions of Subsection A of this section do not apply to matters relating to personnel or matters adjudicatory in nature or to investigative or quasi-judicial proceedings relating to ethics and conduct or to a caucus of a political party.

C. For the purposes of this section, "meeting" means a gathering of a quorum of the members of a standing committee or conference committee held for the purpose of taking any action within the authority of the committee or body.

History: 1953 Comp., § 5-6-24, enacted by Laws 1974, ch. 91, § 2; 2009, ch. 105, § 1.

The 2009 amendment, effective June 19, 2009, in Subsection A, added "unless otherwise provided by joint house and senate rule" at the beginning of the sentence; after "all meetings of", deleted "a quorum of members of" and added the last sentence; in Subsection B, deleted the language after "adjudicatory in nature", deleted "or any bill, resolution or other legislative matter not yet presented to either house of the legislature or general appropriation bills" and added the remainder of the sentence; in Subsection C, after "gathering of", added "a quorum of"; after "members", deleted "called by the presiding officer" and after "standing committee", added the remainder of the sentence.

Open meetings not required. — The open meetings requirement as defined in this section does not apply to a caucus of the majority party of the house of representatives. 1976 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 76-21.