Executive sessions and the Open Meetings Act

How Milton works · Lesson 10

Georgia’s Open Meetings Act says Council’s business happens in public, with a few narrow exceptions. Here’s what counts as a meeting, what Council may discuss behind closed doors, and the paper trail the law requires when it does.

What counts as a meeting

Any time a quorum of Council (four members in Milton) gathers and official business is “formulated, presented, discussed, or voted upon,” it’s a meeting, and it has to be open, with notice and an agenda. Every vote is taken in public. An action taken at a meeting that should have been open “shall not be binding,” and a challenge generally has to be filed within 90 days (O.C.G.A. 50-14-1). Email among members isn’t a meeting, but those emails are public records (O.C.G.A. 50-14-3(a)(8)).

What Council can discuss in private

An executive session is “a portion of a meeting lawfully closed to the public.” Milton’s code allows them for three kinds of business, and everything else stays open (Sec. 2-42):

• Real estate and settlements: authorizing negotiations to buy, sell or lease property, ordering an appraisal, or authorizing the settlement of a legal claim.
• Personnel: hiring, pay, evaluation, discipline or dismissal of a city officer or employee. Hearing evidence or argument on discipline must be public, and so must the vote.
• Exempt records: the parts of a meeting where Council must consider a record the Open Records Act keeps confidential.

O.C.G.A. 50-14-3(b)(1), (2) and (4). Filling a vacancy on Council itself is always open.

The rules for closing the door

1. A public vote to go in. A majority must vote, in the open meeting, to close it. The minutes have to list who was there, who voted to close and the specific reason.
2. Stay on topic. If anyone starts a discussion the law doesn’t allow, the presiding officer must rule it out of order, and adjourn the closed session if it continues.
3. A sworn affidavit coming out. The mayor or presiding officer signs a notarized affidavit that the closed session covered only allowed topics, naming the specific exception, filed with the minutes.
4. Secret minutes, kept for a judge. Executive session minutes are recorded but not public, and they’re preserved so a court can review them if there’s a dispute.

O.C.G.A. 50-14-4 and 50-14-1(e)(2)(C); Milton Sec. 2-42(2) to (4).

Decisions still happen in public

A closed-door vote to buy, sell or lease land, or to settle a lawsuit, isn’t binding until Council votes again in public, with the property or the settlement terms disclosed first. Personnel votes are taken in public (O.C.G.A. 50-14-3(b)).

If the law is broken

Knowingly and willfully meeting in violation is a misdemeanor, with a fine up to $1,000. A court can also impose a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for a first violation and up to $2,500 for each one after it within a year, and residents can sue to enforce the Act (O.C.G.A. 50-14-6).

What to watch for

• The stated reason in the motion to close. “Personnel” or “real estate” should match what follows.
• The affidavit and the minutes. Both are filed with the meeting’s records, and you can request them.
• The public vote that follows, and whether the terms were disclosed first.

Georgia Open Meetings Act, O.C.G.A. 50-14-1 to 50-14-6. Not legal advice.

Quick check

1. Which of these can Milton City Council discuss in executive session?

   A new zoning ruleNegotiations to buy a piece of landNext year's budget

2. How does Council go into executive session?

   The mayor announces itA majority votes to close, in the open meeting, with the reason in the minutesThe city attorney decides

3. Council agrees in executive session to buy land. When is that binding?

   Right awayAfter a later public vote with the property and terms disclosedOnce the mayor signs the affidavit