Sunshine Law Requirements for Multi-Site and Remote Meetings, Effective January 1, 2022

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meet the quorum requirement wiII be off -camera for an extended period of time or during a vote, the board should call If recess until a quorum of members are present and visible. Note that the visibiIityrequirementforboard members applies onIyto the public portion of a meeting. During an executive session closed to the public, board members can participate via telephone or audio only without being visible online. Because participants may not be visible during an online executive session, and to preserve the executive nature of any portion of a meeting closed to the public, the presiding officer must publicly state the names and titles of all authorized participants, who in turn must confirm that no unauthorized person can hear them either in person or via anotheraudio or audiovisual connection. Additionally, if the remote meeting platform allows doing so, the meeting host must confirm that no unauthorized person has access to the executive meeting. "Authorized participants" would be anyone properly included in the closed portion of the meeting, which generally means board members, staff members necessary to run the meeting (e.g., technical orproduction staff), and in some cases, third parties whose presence is necessaryto the closed meeting (e.g., applicant, witness, or attorney). C. Procedures for the public portion of remote meetings At the start of a remote meeting, the presiding officer must announcethe names of the participating members and each board member participating from a nonpublic location must state who else is with the member. Votes must generally be taken by roll call, so that it is clear how each member voted, but when the vote is unanimous the board is not required to take a roll call vote. Thus, a board can first ask if any members object or wish to abstain from voting, and only proceed to call the roll if there is at least one objection or abstention. A board is generally required to record a remote meeting and make the recording electron ically available to the public as soon as practicable after the meeting. This requirement only applies "when practicable," and the recording is only required to be kept online until the meeting minutes are posted on the board's website. Because it is usually easy to record an online meeting and post it on a board's website, the general requirementto do so gives people who were unable to attend the meeting the abilityto watch at a more convenienttime, butstill permits a board to skip recording an online meeting when doing so presents a more significant challenge. A board could also take advantage of the recording by using it as its recorded minutes in combination with the written summary required for recorded minutes. If a board opts fortraditional written minutes instead, it can remove and even delete the recording once its written minutes are posted. For furtherguidance on minutes, see OIP's "Quick Review: Sunshine Law Requirements for Public Meeting Minutes" on ourTraining page at oip.hawaii.gov. IV. Requirements for Both Remote and Multi -Site Meetings Using ICT In -Depth Sunshine Law Requirements for Remote Meetings, Effective 1/1/2022 Page 5