State legislators are looking at permanent changes to Oklahoma’s Open Meetings Act.
An interim study held Wednesday in the Oklahoma Senate examined the potential to permanently incorporate changes that the Oklahoma Legislature made earlier this year, allowing agencies, boards and commissions at the state and local levels to meet and hold public meetings virtually. The changes were made in accordance with health and safety guidelines due to the coronavirus pandemic, but are set to expire Nov. 15.
Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, requested the study, saying he thinks the temporary changes have been mostly successful and that making them permanent may be worthwhile to ensure state laws accommodate the use of new technology.
“The changes allowed government at state and local levels to continue to meet publicly and do their jobs while still following coronavirus-related health and safety protocols,” Treat said. “The changes also brought public meetings online, increasing transparency of government at the state and local level by giving the public even more access to observe the actions of public bodies.”
Treat said he took advantage of public meetings moving online and watched the meetings of the school board of the district where his children attend school. He said work and his children’s extracurricular activities often kept his family from attending such meetings in person.
“Working families have a lot going on and don’t always have time to attend a meeting in person of the city council, the school board, or the county commission. But those local entities make decisions routinely that have a huge impact on the daily lives of those same families. I think by modernizing the Open Meeting Act and preserving the ability of public bodies to give the public access to meetings online is a positive and the Legislature should consider making these changes permanent,” Treat said.
The hearing featured testimony from the mayor of Bethany about his city’s experience with holding meetings online. A representative from the Oklahoma Press Association shared experiences of its members with the changes and offered examples of entities that fell short of the tenants of the Open Meeting Act. Members of the Capitol press corps overall characterized the updates to the Open Meeting Act as positive, but gave input on areas that lawmakers should pay attention to ensure public access isn’t diminished.
