Sunshine Law

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Florida's government and the Sunshine Laws help our citizens understand and have confidence in their state and local governments.

The goal of Florida's Open Meetings Law is to make the governmental decision making process accessible and transparent to its citizens.

Florida deems open meetings important enough that it is required by both the Florida Constitution and the Florida Statutes.

Article 1, Section 24 of the Florida Constitution states that all meetings of a public body at which official acts are to be taken or at which public business is to be transacted or discussed shall be open to the public.

Similarly, Section 286.011 of the Florida Statutes outlines the three basic requirements for a public meeting

1. Meetings must be open to the public
2. Reasonable notice must be given in advance of the meeting
3. Minutes of Sunshine meetings must be kept and be open to public inspection.

So what is a meeting?

For these purposes, a meeting is where two or more members of the same board or committee discuss matters that will foreseeably come before the body for action.

So any time that more than one member of a board gets together to discuss board business, all the requirements of the Sunshine Law must be met.

In this time of ever evolving technology, it is especially important to recognize that board members cannot do indirectly what they can't do directly.

In other words, when board members cannot have telephone, instant message text or email communications or discussions with other board members about matters that may come before their board.

Likewise, board members should not exchange letters or memoranda about board business.

Remember, the goal of the law is to allow members of the public to be present for any decision making related discussions which they cannot do during a private exchange.

In addition to the state requirements, the City of Orlando has adopted Sunshine Meeting policies that hold our City Council and boards to additional standards designed to ensure that Orlando citizens have full access to information about their government.

Under the state law, a meeting being open to the public means that any interested person can attend and that the meeting is held in an accessible location, including access that can accommodate the needs of persons with disabilities.

City policy number 121.1 additionally requires that all City of Orlando Council and board meetings be held in publicly owned land, leased or operated facilities.

The city adopted this rule to ensure that meetings are held in places that members of the public will feel comfortable attending.

The advance notice and meeting minute requirements are generally items that the city staff assigned to assist with your board operations will take care of.

City staff is generally never voting members of city boards so you can communicate freely with them without violating the Sunshine Law.

As long as you do not include other board members on communications which occur outside a posted meeting.

However, when communicating your needs to staff, it is important to be aware that our city policy requires that all Sunshine meetings be posted at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting on our city website and on bulletin boards established for that purpose in Orlando City Hall.

The city policy also requires that written minutes be prepared within five business days of the date of a Sunshine meeting.

Although it is permissible to make audio or video recordings of your meetings, doing so does not change the requirement that written minutes have to be prepared within five days.

Again, normally each city board will have a recording secretary assigned to it to post its meetings and to record the minutes.

But if your board chooses to have subcommittees, all of these requirements will also be applicable to the subcommittee.

So please ensure that arrangements have been made for the advance notice, posting, accessible location and minutes requirements to be timely met for those meetings as well.

As a City of Orlando Board member, you are a representative of the city and will be viewed that way by anyone attending one of your board meetings.

Please avoid unintentional behavior that may appear to be a violation of the Sunshine Law to those in the audience.

For example, board members whispering to each other or jotting notes to each other during a board meeting may appear to be engaging in a private discussion about board business.

Even if you are discussing the weather or other matters which would not be matters that would foreseeably come before your board, the such private conversations may appear to be improper.

In order to uphold the city's high standards of transparency, please avoid any such appearance of impropriety.

In 2013, the Florida legislature amended the Open Meetings Law to require that members of the public be given a reasonable opportunity to be heard on a proposition before a board.

So prior to a board taking action on a matter, it must give the opportunity for the public to comment on it either at the meeting where the decision will be made or a meeting within reasonable proximity in time before the meeting at which the board will take official action.

There are very limited exceptions to this law, and boards may still adopt rules of decorum to allow the comments to be taken in an orderly manner.

The Orlando City Council's rules with respect to the conduct of its meetings are found in City Policy and Procedure 121.5.

Violations of the Open Meetings Law carry both criminal and civil penalties.

Further actions taken in violation of the Sunshine Law are void and must be cured by independent final action taken in the Sunshine Law.

If you have any questions about the requirements of the Sunshine Law, please contact the assistant city attorney assigned to your board at 407.246.2295.