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VIRGINIA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT. MEETINGS. WHEN SOCIAL
FUNCTIONS NOT CONSIDERED MEETINGS.
August 20, 1982
The Honorable William R. O'Brien
Member, House of Delegates
82-83 721
This is in reply to your letter received on August 13, 1982, in
which you asked my opinion on the applicability of the Virginia
Freedom of Information Act to social functions, such as Cocktail
parties, attended by members of a city Council. A typical invitation
was enclosed with your letter. The invitation to attend the cocktail
party indicated that it was being spondored by the Chamber of
Commerce in recognition of outstanding service performed by the
present and retiring members of the city council.
Section 2.1-343 of the ode of Virginia requires that all
"meetings" of public bodies, including local governing bodies, shall
be public meetings, except as otherwise provided by law. Section
2.1-341, which defines what constitutes a meeting,1
contains a proviso which reads in pertinent part as follows:
"Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to make
unlawful the gathering or attendance of two or more members of a
body or entity at any place or function where no part of the
purpose of such gathering or attendance is the discussion or
transaction of any public business, and such gathering or
attendance was not called or prearranged with any purpose of
discussing or transacting any business of the body or entity."
It is clear from the foregoing quoted provision that social
functions attended by members of public bodies do not fall within the
purview of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, in absence of
evidence that such occasion was prearranged with the purpose of
discussing or transacting any business of that public body.
_____________________________
Footnotes:
1 Section 2.1-341 (a) provides in part that
"meetings" means the "meetings, when sitting as a body or entity, or
as an informal assemblage of (i) as many as three members, or (ii) a
quorum, if less than three, of the constituent membership, wherever
held...."
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