Attorney General's Opinion 1983-84 #440
VIRGINIA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT. EFFECTIVE JULY 1,1984. MEETINGS MAY NOT BE HELD BY TELEPHONE CONFERENCE CALL.
June 28, 1984
The Honorable Johnas F. Hockaday,
Chancellor, Virginia Community College System
83-84 440
You ask whether the State Board for Community Colleges (the "Board"), or its committees, may officially take action upon the consensus of its constituent membership obtained by individual telephone calls to each member if such action is later confirmed or reported at a subsequent meeting of the Board, or its committee. For the reasons which follow, I must answer your question in the negative.
Your inquiry correctly assumes that House Bill 241, which amends the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (the "Act")2 will prohibit the members of the Board, or its committees, from conducting meetings by telephone conference calls.3
Although the Act, as amended, does not expressly require that all official Board or committee action be taken or authorized at a meeting of the membership, I am of the view that such conclusion is inescapable when one considers the preamble to the Act4, as well as the legislative intent manifested in enacting House Bill 24. Accordingly, any official action of the Board, or committee, as the case may be, must be taken or authorized at a meeting of the Board, or committee, where the membership thereof is physically present.
I further observe that State Board bylaws also appear to prohibit official action based only upon a consensus obtained pursuant to telephone calls. Sections 2.7 and 4.7 of your bylaws provide:
"The act of the majority of the members present at a meeting shall be the act of the Board.* * *
[A]ny action of that Committee to be effective must be authorized by the affirmative vote of a majority of the members thereof present at the meeting." (Emphasis added.)
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FOOTNOTES
1 Ch. 252, Acts of Assembly of 1984.
2 Section 2.1-340 et seq. of the Code of Virginia.
3 House Bill 24 provides, in pertinent part: " § 2.1-341(a). No meeting shall be conducted through telephonic, video, electronic, or other communication means where the members are not physically assembled to discuss or transact public business. . . ."
§ 2.1-343.1. It is a violation of this Act for any public body to conduct a meeting wherein the public business is discussed or transacted through telephonic, video, electronic or other communication means where the members are not physically assembled."
The Bill may fairly be characterized as a legislative response to the Virginia Supreme Court's decision in Roanoke City School Bd. v. Times-World Corporation, 226 Va. 176, 307 S.E.2d 256 (1983). In Times World, the Court held that telephone conference calls are not a violation of the Act because they do not constitute meetings of the members of a public body.
4 Section 2.1-340.1 provides: "This chapter recognizes that the affairs of government are not intended to be conducted in an atmosphere of secrecy since at all times the public is to be the beneficiary of any action taken at any level of government. To the end that the purposes of this chapter may be realized, it shall be liberally construed to promote an increased awareness by all persons of governmental activities and afford every opportunity to citizens to witness the operations of government. Any exception or exemption from applicability shall be narrowly construed in order that no thing which should be public may be hidden from any person." (Emphasis added.)
