The Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Office of Open Government has released an advisory regarding the ability of governmental bodies to hold open meetings via telephone conference in light of current public health concerns regarding COVID-19.
According to the OOG, governmental bodies typically can meet their open meetings obligations by conducting meetings via telephone conference calls if the public is provided with an effective way to monitor such calls (such as public distribution, at least 24 hours in advance, of dial-in information for a conference call). However, the meeting is required to be “reasonably accessible” — an issue that must be determined on a case-by-case basis.
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In cases where it is particularly burdensome or even infeasible for one or more individuals who would like to observe a meeting to do so remotely — for example, for people without telephone or internet access or who are deaf or hard of hearing — appropriate accommodations must be made.
However, some scenarios might not allow for “reasonable access” to be achieved remotely, the advisory states. For example, in situations where a complex visual aid is needed for display or the demeanor of a witness is significant, a meeting held by teleconference likely would not be “reasonably accessible” to the public because important aspects of the discussion or deliberation would not be communicated to the public.
