VIRGINIA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT. PLANNING COMMISSION MAY NOT RENDER OPINIONS IN OPEN MEETING BY SECRET BALLOT.

September 3, 1982

The Honorable Thomas B. Baird, Jr.
Commonwealth's Attorney for Wythe County

82-83 723

This is in reply to your letter dated August 25, 1982, requesting an Opinion whether a town planning commission may render opinions by secret ballot procedure at an open meeting.

The Virginia Freedom of Information Act, §2.1-340 through §2.1-346.1 of the Code of Virginia, (the "Act") provides that all meetings shall be public meetings unless otherwise specifically provided by law.¹ Meetings of a planning commission expressly come within the purview of the Act.² This Office has opined that secret ballot voting by members of a public body constitutes a violation of the open meeting requirements of the Act³ and I concur with that conclusion. Accordingly, I am of the opinion that a town planning commission may not render opinions by secret ballot in an open meeting without violating the open meeting requirements of the Act.

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Footnotes:

1 See §2.1-343.

2 See §2.1-341 (a).

3 See 1977-1978 Report of the Attorney General at 492 and 1974-1975 Report of the Attorney General at 578.