Open Meetings Act Pregnancy Exemption (H 7304)

Presently, the Open Meetings Act allows public body members to participate remotely under two specific circumstances: (1) if they are on active duty in the armed forces; or (2) if they have a disability as defined in state disability law which prevents them from being physically present, and there is no other reasonable accommodation. As such, we opposed legislation which would create another exemption: members of public bodies who are pregnant or who have given birth in the past six months. While we appreciated the good intentions behind this bill, we argued that there is a strong public benefit to having public bodies meet in person. Accountability and transparency are both enhanced when the public and the media can see interactions between members, and can follow up with them in person on certain issues.