November 19, 1974

THE HONORABLE FREDERIC LEE RUCK
County Attorney for Fairfax County

74-75 22

You inquired whether a board of supervisors may authorize the county executive and such other county employees at it deems appropriate to meet with representatives of employee groups to discuss matters of mutual interest and to reach a preliminary agreement to be presented to the board for its consideration. You also ask whether such discussions are required to be open to the public under the Freedom of Information Act.

The questions presented by your request are substantially similar to the questions addressed in my opinion to the Honorable Hunter B. Andrews, Member, Senate of Virginia, dated February 18, 1970, and found in Report of the Attorney General (1969-1970) at 231. In that opinion, I held that school boards could meet with teacher representatives to discuss matters of mutual interest and that they could adopt an agreement embodying the points agreed upon in the discussions. I also noted, however, that the school boards must retain the right to make the final decision in such matters and that the boards could not deny the right of individual teachers to be heard.

What I said in my opinion to Senator Andrews regarding the rights of school boards applies also to boards of supervisors. Because a board of supervisors has the authority to meet and to reach an agreement with employee representatives, it has the authority to designate certain of its employees as it deems appropriate to meet with those representatives and to reach a preliminary agreement to be submitted to the board for consideration. Explicit in this procedure, of course, is the right of the board to make the final decision. Furthermore, if, when it is considering the preliminary agreement, the board affords the employee representatives the right to be heard, it must also afford that right to individual employees.

The Virginia Freedom of Information Act, §§2.1-341, et seq., of the Code of Virginia (1950), as amended, requires, with certain limited exceptions, that meetings of public bodies be open to the public. The board of supervisors is a public body and any discussions it may hold with employee representatives would be open to the public. Because employees of the board are not considered public bodies under the Act, meetings conducted by employees are not required by the Act to be open to the public. I am of the opinion, therefore, that discussions held between employees of the board and employee representatives are not required to be open to the public.