A county commission has recently appointed a 911 committee to study that county’s system. The commission wants the committee to recommend whether to consolidate several of the dispatching systems, it seems.
The newspaper wants to get meeting notices and minutes of that committee, but they are told it is not subject to the sunshine law by the county’s attorney, because the committee has no power to actually make the change. They are empowered only to study the issue and discuss the matter, then make a formal recommendation.
A simple reading of the definition of a public governmental body makes it clear that this is a legal conclusion that needs a little more study itself. Who is considered a “public governmental body and subject to the law? “Any … advisory committee appointed by or at the direction of any of the named entities for the specific purpose of recommending, directly to the public governmental body’s governing board or its chief administrative officer, policy or policy revisions or expenditures of public funds…”
Sure sounds to me like it’s subject to the law. I’m hoping this is one situation where the body’s attorney takes a second look at the law. I don’t think this one falls into any “gray area” that arguably exists in some of the statutes in Chapter 610!