On May 26, 2011 the ACCG General County Government Committee met to address HB 397, which proposes significant changes to Georgia’s open meetings and open records laws.   This legislation was introduced during the 2011 session of the Georgia General Assembly and action is expected to be taken on the bill during the 2012 session.  Over 40 county commissioners, attorney’s, managers/administrators and clerks from all over the state attended the meeting. 

 

Ted Baggett with the Carl Vinson institute of Government facilitated the meeting and provided a history of Georgia’s open meetings and open records laws and some court precedents in various areas.  Jim Grubiak, ACCG General Counsel, then highlighted specific proposals in HB 397. 

 

Attendees were then broken up into three discussion groups in the morning, then three discussion groups in the afternoon.  Each discussion group was charged with developing recommendations both to enhance HB 397 and the current law in specific areas (areas are listed in the agenda).

 

The overall group got back together for the last hour of the meeting and all voted to prioritize, by importance to them, the specific recommendations proposed by the respective discussion groups.  The results of that voting/prioritization can be found in the last attachment, with responses to each question ranging from “not important” to “extremely important”. 

 

For additional information:

 

ACCG Open Meetings/Open Records May 26 Agenda

List of Attendees

HB 397 Substitute Bill

HB 397 ACCG PowerPoint Presentation

List of Attendees’ Recommended Priorities