Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman CAROL A. MURPHY
District 7 (Burlington)
SYNOPSIS
Requires municipalities and boards of education record public meetings and post recordings on Internet.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act requiring municipalities and boards of education to record public meetings and post recordings on the Internet and amending P.L.1975, c.231.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 9 of P.L.1975, c.231 (C.10:4-14) is amended to read as follows:
9. a. Each public body shall keep reasonably comprehensible minutes of all its meetings showing the time and place, the members present, the subjects considered, the actions taken, the vote of each member, and any other information required to be shown in the minutes by law, which shall be promptly available to the public to the extent that making such matters public shall not be inconsistent with section 7 of this act.
b. Each municipality and board of education shall cause to be recorded by video recording devices all meetings, including any emergency meeting held pursuant to section 4 of P.L.1975, c.231 (C.10:4-9), and shall post such recordings on the official Internet site of the municipality or board of education. The minutes of a meeting of a municipality or board of education shall include any video recording of the meeting made by the municipality or board of education, and such recording shall be available to the public on the same basis as other meeting minutes and on the Internet site of the municipality or board of education. All recordings of meetings or portions of meetings closed to the public pursuant to subsection b. of section 7 of P.L.1975, c.231 (C.10:4-12) shall be considered public records under P.L.1963, c.73 (C.47:1A-1 et seq.) when originally made, and shall be released to the public at the time the meeting minutes, or portions thereof, may legally be released to the public. Only those portions of the recordings that correspond to the accessible minutes shall be released. At that time, the accessible recordings, or portions thereof, shall also be posted on the official Internet site of the municipality or board of education.
(cf: P.L.1975, c.231, s.9)
2. This act shall take effect thirty days after the date of enactment, except municipalities or boards of education may take any anticipatory administrative action in advance as shall be necessary for the implementation of this act.
STATEMENT
This bill revises the "Senator Byron M. Baer Open Public Meetings Act" to require municipalities and boards of education to
video record each meeting and to post the recordings on their Internet sites. The bill also provides that the minutes of a meeting of a municipality or board of education will include the video recording of the meeting. Portions of the recordings that correspond to the minutes that are accessible to the public shall be released to the public at the time the meeting minutes, or portions thereof, may legally be released to the public, and posted on the official Internet site of the municipality or board of education.