Bill Text: NY A08134 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Establishes under the open meetings law any member or officer of the public body that uses videoconferencing to participate in a meeting shall be counted for quorum; requires a site be provided to the public to participate in such videoconferencing.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-01-05 - referred to governmental operations [A08134 Detail]
Download: New_York-2021-A08134-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 8134 2021-2022 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY June 11, 2021 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. NIOU -- read once and referred to the Committee on Governmental Operations AN ACT to amend the public officers law, in relation to videoconferenc- ing meetings under the open meetings law The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 102 of the public officers law, as 2 amended by chapter 289 of the laws of 2000, is amended to read as 3 follows: 4 1. "Meeting" means the official convening of a public body for the 5 purpose of conducting public business, including the use of videoconfer- 6 encing for attendance and participation by the members of the public 7 body. Participation by videoconferencing shall constitute presence in 8 person and counted for quorum purposes. 9 § 2. Subdivision (c) of section 103 of the public officers law, as 10 added by chapter 289 of the laws of 2000, is amended to read as follows: 11 (c) A public body that uses videoconferencing to conduct its meetings 12 shall provide an opportunity for the public to attend, listen and 13 observe at any public site at which a member participates. If no member 14 is participating at a public site, such public body shall provide a site 15 for the public to attend, listen and observe. Such site may include the 16 internet address of the website streaming such meeting if such meeting 17 is occurring only through the internet. Each member of the public body 18 shall ensure they are present for the duration of such videoconference. 19 § 3. Subdivision 1 of section 106 of the public officers law, as added 20 by chapter 511 of the laws of 1976 and as renumbered by chapter 652 of 21 the laws of 1983, is amended to read as follows: 22 1. Minutes shall be taken at all open meetings of a public body which 23 shall consist of a record or summary of all motions, proposals, resol- 24 utions and any other matter formally voted upon and the vote thereon. 25 Such minutes may be taken and made available to the public in an elec- 26 tronic format including by audio recording which shall be transcribed no 27 later than one week after such meeting. 28 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD11151-01-1