At least three working days' notice is necessary to announce the change in location of a previously scheduled meeting; updates required everywhere notice is posted, including the Internet.
When making a motion to go into closed session, the level of specificity required to identify the subject matter when addressing litigation greatly depends upon how its disclosure would affect the negotiating or litigating posture of the public body, and thus a general description may suffice.
A school board member's attendance as a member of the general public at a meeting of a committee that two fellow school board members are on does not constitute a meeting of the school board.
Parental request of school board for religious exemption (as a personal matter unrelated to the transaction of public business) is proper subject for a closed meeting if the topic has been identified with specificity in the motion to go into closed session.
once city council members acted on a report that was arguably part of the city manager's working papers, any exempt status is lost and the document becomes part of the public record.
Notice for special or emergency meetings must be reasonable under the circumstances; determination of reasonableness is not within purview of FOI Advisory Council's duties.
The condition or use of real estate is no longer a valid topic for a closed meeting; city manager's working paper exemption evaporates once he disseminates document.
Physical presence of lawyer is necessary for public body to invoke closed meeting exemption regarding consultation for advice on a specific legal matter; counsel's presence is not necessarily demanded when the exemption for briefings on actual or probable litigation.
The informal gathering of three members of the Norfolk Wetlands Board to tour the site of an applicant for a dredging permit is considered a meeting under FOIA because it necessarily concerns the transaction of public business
Elected officials are not employees of the board, therefore the closed meeting exemption for private discussions of an individual employee's performance does not apply to them.
Becuase a city council does not exercise control over the daily work of the city manager's employees, the city council cannot use the personnel exemption to discuss city employees in a closed meeting.
Under law as it existed prior to July 1, 1999, advance notice of a telephone meeting didn't need to list all locations from where telephone participation was to take place. Post-July 1, 1999, law says all locations must be identified.
Two members of seven-member board may meet informally by phone, provided the two do not constitute a standing committee nor authorized to act on the board's behalf.
Though a city council may meet in executive session to discuss personnel appointed by the council, it cannot close a public meeting to discuss the employees of those appointed personnel.
An injunction is proper where a school
board enters into any contract, which was discussed during a closed
executive session conducted pursuant to the Virginia Freedom of
Information Act and whose effective date is before the date on which the
school board reconvenes in open session and formally approves the
contract.
Decided City Council did not violate FOIA by meeting
in closed session; Shenandoah Publishing House Inc. v. The
Winchester City Council; Chancery No. 95-156.
