Open Meetings Laws in Massachusetts

Note: This page covers information specific to Massachusetts. For general information concerning access to government meetings see the Access to Government Meetings section of this guide.

The Massachusetts Open Meeting Law, the main provisions of which are located at Mass Gen. Laws. ch. 39, §§ 17, 23A, 23B, 23C and Mass Gen. Laws ch. 30A, §§ 11A, 11A 1/2, 11B, 11C, provides the public with a right of access to the meetings of a large number of government bodies at the state and local level. Massachusetts law also gives you the ability to inspect and copy meeting minutes and imposes notice requirements on government bodies. For more detailed information on the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law, see the Massachusetts Attorney General's Open Meeting Law Guidelines, the Massachusetts League of Women Voters' A Guide to Open Meetings, and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press's Open Government Guide: Massachusetts.

What Meetings are Covered?

What Government Bodies Are Covered?

The Open Meeting Law applies to governmental bodies. This includes nearly all boards, commissions, committees, and other multi-member bodies that carry out a government function at the state and local level in Massachusetts. However, the law specifically excludes the following things from the definition of "governmental body": (1) the judicial branch of state government; (2) the General Court (i.e., the state legislature) and its committees and subcommittees; and (3) town meetings (town meetings have their own local rules). Covered groups include boards of selectmen, city councils, local school boards, and state boards and commissions like the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and the State Ethics Committee. The law does not cover individual government officials such as a mayor or police chief, nor boards informally appointed by an individual official to carry out his or her duties. It also does not apply to federal government bodies or private organizations.

For more information and examples of what kinds of government entities are covered by the Open Meeting Law, see pages five and six of the Open Meeting Law Guidelines and A Guide to Open Meetings.

What is a Meeting?

In addition to determining what government bodies are covered by Massachusetts law, you'll need to figure out which of their gatherings or activities constitute an "meeting" for purposes of the law (and therefore must be open to the public). The Open Meeting Law applies to every gathering of a quorum of a governmental body where attending members discuss or consider official business within the scope of their official authority. A "quorum" means a simple majority of members of the governmental body. For example, if a city council has seven members, a "meeting" takes place whenever four or more council members congregate to deal with city council business. The Open Meeting Law does not apply to a chance meeting, or a social gathering at which matters relating to official business are discussed so long as no final agreement is reached. Nor does it apply to an on-site inspection of a project or program by a governmental body.

What Are Your Rights?

Attending Meetings

The Open Meeting Law gives "any person" the right to attend the meetings of governmental bodies, with exceptions for closed sessions discussed below. Massachusetts law does not limit access to meetings to a specific category of people or a profession, such as "the traditional press." Anyone may attend, including non-residents and non-voters.

The Open Meeting Law does not give the public a right to participate or comment during open meetings. As a matter of practice, however, governmental bodies often allow members of the public to comment during public meetings. No one may address a public meeting of a governmental body without permission of the presiding officer, and all persons must be silent upon request of the presiding officer. See Mass Gen. Laws. ch. 39, § 23C.

Notice

The right to attend meetings is not necessarily meaningful without proper notice of those meetings. To address this issue, Massachusetts law requires governmental bodies to give notice to the public of its meetings. A governmental body must provide notice at least forty-eight hours in advance (excluding Sundays and holidays). The notice must contain the date, time, and place of the meeting.

State-level governmental bodies must file notice with the Secretary of the Commonwealth and post a copy in the office of the Executive Office for Administration and Finance. The Executive Office for Administration and Finance does not appear to post these notices online. Local-level governmental bodies must file notice with the clerk of the city or town in which the body acts and post notice in the office of the clerk or on the main bulletin board in the town or city hall. If the government body exercises authority on a regional or district basis, it must file and post notice in each city and town within its region or district. Special notice rules apply to regional school district committees. See Mass Gen. Laws. ch. 39, § 23B.

Minutes and Recordings

Governmental bodies must must record and maintain accurate minutes of their meetings, setting forth at a minimum the date, time, place, members present or absent, and action taken at each meeting. Governing bodies must make these minutes available to the public for inspection and copying, except that minutes of executive sessions may be kept confidential as explained below.

In addition, governmental bodies may make an audio or video recording of public meetings. If they choose to do so, they must make these recordings available for the public as well.

For information on your ability to use recording devices at public meetings, see Massachusetts Recording Law.

An Exception: Closed Meetings or Sessions

The general rule is that all meetings of governmental bodies must be open to the public. If a governmental body wants to hold a closed session, called an "executive session," it must identity a specific statutory exception. Under the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law, a governmental body may hold an executive session when it is dealing with one of seven subject-area exemptions found in Mass Gen. Laws. ch. 30A, § 11A 1/2. The seven exemptions are:

• to discuss the reputation, character, physical condition or mental health of an individual;
• to consider the discipline or dismissal of, or to hear complaints or charges brought against, a public officer, employee, staff member, or individual;
• to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation;
• to discuss the deployment of security personnel or devices;
• to investigate charges of criminal misconduct or to discuss the filing of criminal complaints;
• to consider the purchase, exchange, lease or value of real estate; and
• to comply with the provisions of any general or special law or federal grant-in-aid requirements.

Two additional exemptions are available to local-level governmental bodies under Mass Gen. Laws. ch. 39, § 23B:

• to consider and interview applicants for employment by a preliminary screening committee or a subcommittee appointed by a governmental body; and
• to conduct mediation of disputes with other parties.

These exemptions make it permissible for a governmental body to close a meeting, they do not require the governmental body to do so. Assuming that a governmental body is dealing with one of these enumerated exceptions, then it may hold an executive session, but it must also meet the following procedural requirements:

• the governmental body must first convene in an open meeting for which notice was given;
• at this open meeting, the governmental body must vote by a majority of members present to go into executive session;
• prior to the vote, the presiding officer must state for the record the statutory exemption relied on to close the meeting; and
• before going into executive session, the presiding officer must state whether the body will reconvene after the executive session.

Governmental bodies must record minutes of executive sessions, but they may keep these minutes confidential "as long as publication may defeat the lawful purposes of the executive session, but no longer." Mass Gen. Laws. ch. 39, § 23B.

For more information on the exceptions to the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law, see the Open Government Guide: Massachusetts, the Open Meeting Law Guidelines, and A Guide to Open Meetings.

What Are Your Remedies If You Are Denied Access?

If you believe that a governmental body is violating or has violated your right of access under the Open Meeting Law, you should contact either your local district attorney or the State Attorney General. If you want to complain about a local government body, you contact the local district attorney. If you want to complain about a state-level governmental body, you should contact the Massachusetts Attorney General. You should submit a formal written complaint that describes the circumstances of the violation as completely and specifically as possible. You can telephone the district attorney or Attorney General's office before sending a complaint to find out what information to include.

Often, the Attorney General or district attorney will reach a negotiated settlement with the governmental body in question, in which the body agrees to stop the complained-of action in return for a promise from the state not to sue or issue an opinion letter blaming it. If the violation is more severe or raises an important point of law, the Attorney General or district attorney may instead issue an opinion letter indicating that the governmental body in question has violated the law, explaining why, and requiring the body to correct the violation. Alternatively, the Attorney General or district attorney may file a lawsuit in state court to get a court order barring the governmental body from violating the law in the future or requiring public disclosure of the minutes of an improperly closed meeting. If the Attorney General or district attorney sues within twenty-one days of the meeting in question, they may also have a court invalidate past actions of the government body taken in violation of the Open Meeting Law. Note that, while the law empowers the State Attorney General and district attorneys to pursue action against a government body, the law provides for no civil or criminal penalties against individual officials who violate the Open Meeting Law.

Instead of going through the Attorney General or district attorney, you can file a lawsuit directly against the governmental body in state court, but you may do so only if you can organize three or more registered voters to act as plaintiffs. If you sue and win, you can obtain the remedies mentioned above -- an order barring future violations, disclosure of meeting minutes from improperly closed meetings, and invalidation of past actions (this latter remedy is only available if you sue within twenty-one days). If you decide to sue, there may be public interest organizations that would be willing to take on your case for free or for a reduced rate. Please see the Finding Legal Help section for details on finding legal representation.

For a great discussion of the enforcement and remedies under the Open Meeting Law, see the Massachusetts League of Women Voters' A Guide to Open Meetings.