VIRGINIA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT Meeting Of City Council With Colonial Heights Taxpayers' Association Not Prohibited By Act Requirements of §2.1-343 must be fulfilled.

CITIES Council Meeting Sites Provision In City Code.

ORDINANCES Attorney General Not Authorized To Render Opinion Interpreting Local Ordinance.

September 27, 1977

THE HONORABLE GEORGE W. JONES
Member, House of Delegates

77-78 484

This is in reply to your letter of September 26, 1977, wherein you make the following inquiry:

"I have been requested by the president of the Colonial Heights Taxpayers' Association to ask that your office render an opinion on the refusal of the City Council members to meet with the members of the Association and other citizens to discuss issues of importance with them. The refusal by the City Manager cited the 'freedom of information act '.

* * *

"The question asked is: Would the acceptance by the Council members to the invitation of the Association be in violation of the 'freedom of information act'? The Association's meeting time and place has been publicized by leaflets and a letter in the local newspapers forum signed by the Association's president."

The attendance of City Council members at the meeting of the Colonial Heights Taxpayers' Association for the purpose of discussing matters relating to tile Council's official functions would constitute a meeting as defined in the Freedom of Information Act. See §2.1-341(a), Code of Virginia (1950), as amended.

Pursuant to the requirements of §2.1-343, all meetings must be public meetings, at which the public may be present, minutes must be recorded, and persons having previously requested individual notice of Council meetings must be notified of the time and place of such meeting.

No provision of the Freedom of Information Act would prohibit the City Council from meeting with the Taxpayers' Association, so long as the above outlined requirements of §2.1-343 are met. Accordingly, I am of the opinion that (1) City Council's acceptance of the invitation to meet with the Taxpayers Association is subject to the Freedom of Information Act, and (2) that the requirements of §2.1-343 must be fulfilled.

Though the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, if complied with, would not prohibit the meeting about which you inquire, I must note that a basis for Council's refusal to meet was also a provision of the City Code regarding the sites for a meeting of Council. This Office makes no determination regarding the proper applicability of a local ordinance. See Opinion to the Honorable Nathan H. Miller, Member, Senate of Virginia, dated March 17, 1977.