In-Depth Sunshine Law Requirements for Multi-site and Remote Meetings

Home

2. At the start of the online meeting,the board could announce that if online connection is lost, information on reconvening or continuing the meeting will be posted on its website and give the website address. 3. If the audio and video have gone down butthere is still a chat function or similar means of communication available,the board should also post a visual notice of the continuation of a meeting through the chat function. 4. If visual connection has been lostduring a meeting using ICT, the board could audibly announce thatthe meeting will be continued and direct people to its website where the relevant information has been posted. 5. If time permits, the board can email people on its email list with a notice of continuation of the meeting. Seethe training or forms page on OIP's website for a form of the notice of continuation. V. Additional Requirements A. Notice The notice for a multi-site meeting must list all the locations where board members will be attending as public meeting sites (except that disabled board members have the abilityto attend from an undisclosed private site, as explained below). The public meeting locations are set at the time the notice is filed. Board members may attend from any of the public meeting locations listed on the filed notice. The notice is not required to specifywhich board members will attend from which location. The noticed locations cannot be cancelled or shut down early while the meeting goes on at another public meeting location listed on the filed notice. A board can eliminate one of the noticed public meeting locations when the meeting is still more than 6 calendardays away by cancelling the entire meeting and then filing a new notice with only the desired locations. Just as with an in-person meeting at a single site, however, if the meeting is less than 6 days away, the board has insufficient time to file a new agenda and so it must eitherconvene the meeting with the originally noticed locations, or cancel the meeting. If a board chooses to provide any additional locations, the notice must state that no board members will be attending from an additional location and that, if the connection between the additional location and the meeting site(s) is lost, whether the meeting will continue without the additional location or will be automatically recessed to restore communication. B. Procedures to prevent meeting disruptions The Sunshine Law continues to allow boards to remove persons who willfully disrupt a meeting. HRS § 92-3. Therefore, a board holding a remote meeting could disconnecta person creating an online disruption orcould take reasonable action In-Depth Sunshine Law Requirements for Remote Meetings, Effective 1/1/2022 Page 7