Kentucky lawmakers have turned their attention to the open meetings law in the current legislative session.

A bill filed on February 3 will codify the right of Kentucky’s public agencies to conduct meetings by video teleconferencing as an alternative to in-person meetings. 

https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/22rs/hb453.html

HB 453, sponsored by Rep. Jonathan Dixon (R-Corydon), also expands an existing open meetings exception for state procurement evaluation committees selecting bidders under KRS Chapter 45A and 56 to local selection committees established by “other state or local law.”

(In other words, the bill extends the same secrecy to local procurement that has existed in state procurement since 2018.) 

Contrary to widely held belief, electronic/virtual/video teleconferenced meetings are not permissible under the pre-pandemic statute currently cited in support of the practice — KRS 61.826. 

https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=47297

The executive orders issued by Governor Beshear in 2020, and legislatively extended last year and this year, represent a temporary modification of KRS 61.826 in response to the public health crisis. 

But as the editorial board of a Virginia newspaper, The Daily Progress, opined (early in the pandemic):

“While avoiding personal contact is important to our physical health at this time, it is not ideal for the health of our democracy over the long run.

“Our leaders must commit to a return to open meetings at shared locations just as soon as the all-clear is given. Electronic meetings might protect them from the discomfort of confronting their critics in person. But democracy cannot thrive in such an environment.”

https://www.dailyprogress.com/opinion/opinion-editorial-democracys-heal…

KRS 61.826 was originally enacted in 1994 to promote expanded public participation at in-person meetings occurring in one place by means of public attendance at various video teleconference meeting sites across the state. (Imagine an open in-person University of Kentucky Board of Trustees’ meeting conducted in Lexington and video teleconferenced at cites in northern, eastern, and western Kentucky to permit parents of UK students to “attend” the board meeting without traveling to central Kentucky.) It was revised in 2018 — at the behest of public officials inconvenienced by physical attendance at a public meeting — to permit those non-present agency members to participate from remote locations. (Imagine a University of Kentucky trustee traveling in Europe who wishes to participate in the board meeting “remotely.”) 

The Kentucky Open Meetings Act establishes a presumption favoring in-person meetings that is as old as the law itself. Neither 1994’s KRS 61.826, nor the 2018 amendment to KRS 61.826, established video teleconferenced meetings as an alternative to in-person meetings. 

https://ag.ky.gov/Resources/Opinions/Opinions/OAG97-037.doc

Great efforts have been expended in other states to preserve accountability through  in-person meetings and expand participation through electronic/virtual/video teleconferenced meetings. “Hybrid”meetings, combining in-person and video teleconferencing — employing the same technology employed by necessity during the pandemic — best serve the public’s interest. 

Once again, Kentucky’s lawmakers must hit the pause button before sacrificing “the health of our democracy” to electronic/virtual/video teleconference meetings and the longstanding presumption in the open meetings law favoring in-person participation.

Or, at a minimum, Kentucky lawmakers should establish additional guardrails for video teleconferenced meetings (e.g., mandatory roll call votes)  to preserve public accountability.