What is meant by the
“Sunshine Law”?

If you attended the City Council meeting on Monday, October 4, 2004, you heard the mayor mention the “Sunshine Law”. His comment was directed toward “not violating the Sunshine Law”.

The statute (Alabama Code 13A-14-2) states “that no executive or secret session shall be held by any of the following named boards, commissions, or courts of Alabama, namely: Alabama Public Service Commission; school commissions of Alabama; board of adjustment; state or county tax commissions; any county commission, any city commission or municipal council (emphasis mine); or any other body, board or commission in the state charged with the duty of disbursing any funds belonging to the state, county or municipality, or boards, body or commission to which is delegated any legislative or judicial function; except, that executive or secret sessions may be held by any of the above named boards or commissions when the character or good name of a woman or man is involved. (1)

The Sunshine Law is designed to insure that open meetings take place. This allows the citizenry to know what discussion or debate occurs, or what issues are considered by their elected officials in arriving at decisions which affect each of us. In other words, it is to let the sunshine in on public meetings. (Someone had a real sense of humor to call it the Sunshine Law.) This law seeks to prevent public meetings “held only to ratify decisions made in secret.” (1) It is certainly inappropriate for a vote to be taken on a matter in secret sessions.

Another aspect of the Sunshine Law is the requirement to give public notice of any special meetings held by any of the above mentioned bodies of government. This notice is to be given in a reasonable time frame and include the place, date, and time of the meeting. The public is be made aware of where these notices will be posted. (Our official designated sites where notices are placed are Chelsea Elementary, the U.S. Post Office, Shelby First National and the foyer of the City Hall. Chelseaetimes will soon be a good place to look for these notices.)

There has been an Alabama Supreme Court decision which has clouded the definition of a meeting and leaves open the question of what constitutes a meeting. It seems that as long as there is not a quorum present then a secret meeting can take place. In my opinion, this violates the spirit of the law which was to make decision-making processes by our governing officials open to public scrutiny. We, the public, have the right to know the details (2) that lead to actions of council and their committees. We should not want to see only the final product that was hammered out in secrecy. We should not want to see our city officials meeting in small groups (to get around the quorum issue), deciding on a vote and then presenting only the final product to us at open meetings. We cannot really know how the public is being served if we do not have open government and this is what is intended with the Sunshine Law.

You, as a citizen of Chelsea, have a responsibility to attend these meetings in order to learn what is occurring in our city. The regular council meetings are the first and third Tuesday nights of each month and the planning commission meetings the fourth Monday of the month.

Let’s get interested and involved — Chelsea city government needs you.



Footnotes:

(1) Alabama Public Access Laws, a Manual for Alabama Public Officials from the Office of Attorney General, Bill Pryor and the Alabama Press Association. May 12,2000

(2) There are exceptions such as security matters which do not best serve the citizenry when made public.



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