Utah Code 52-4-202. Public notice of meetings — Emergency meetings

52-4-202. Public notice of meetings — Emergency meetings.

(1)

Terms Used In Utah Code 52-4-202

Anchor location: means the physical location from which:

(a)	an electronic meeting originates; or

(b)

the participants are connected. See Utah Code 52-4-103

Capitol hill complex: means the grounds and buildings within the area bounded by 300 North Street, Columbus Street, 500 North Street, and East Capitol Boulevard in Salt Lake City. See Utah Code 52-4-103

Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.

Meeting: means the convening of a public body or a specified body, with a quorum present, including a workshop or an executive session, whether in person or by means of electronic communications, for the purpose of discussing, receiving comments from the public about, or acting upon a matter over which the public body or specified body has jurisdiction or advisory power. See Utah Code 52-4-103

Public body: includes :

(i)	an interlocal entity or joint or cooperative undertaking, as those terms are defined in Section 11-13-103;

(ii)	a governmental nonprofit corporation as that term is defined in Section 11-13a-102;

(iii)

the Utah Independent Redistricting Commission; and

(iv)

a project entity, as that term is defined in Section 11-13-103. See Utah Code 52-4-103

(a)

(i)	A public body shall give not less than 24 hours’ public notice of each meeting.

(ii)	A specified body shall give not less than 24 hours’ public notice of each meeting that the specified body holds on the capitol hill complex.

(b)

The public notice required under Subsection (1)(a) shall include the meeting:

(i)

agenda;

(ii)

date;

(iii)

time; and

(iv)

place.

(2)

(a)	In addition to the requirements under Subsection (1), a public body which holds regular meetings that are scheduled in advance over the course of a year shall give public notice at least once each year of its annual meeting schedule as provided in this section.

(b)	The public notice under Subsection (2)(a) shall specify the date, time, and place of the scheduled meetings.

(3)

(a)	Subject to Subsection (3)(c), a public body or specified body satisfies a requirement for public notice by publishing the notice for the public body’s jurisdiction, as a class A notice under Section 63G-30-102, for at least 24 hours.

(b)

A public body whose limited resources make compliance with the requirement to post notice on the Utah Public Notice Website difficult may request the Division of Archives and Records Service, created in Section 63A-12-101, to provide technical assistance to help the public body in its effort to comply.

(c)

A public body or specified body that is required, under this chapter and Section 63G-30-102, to post notice in a public location within the affected area may comply with the requirement by posting the notice in, on, or near:

(i)	the anchor location for the meeting; or

(ii)	the structure or other area where the meeting will be held.

(4)	A public body and a specified body are encouraged to develop and use additional electronic means to provide notice of their meetings under Subsection (3).

(5)

(a)

The notice requirement of Subsection (1) may be disregarded if:

(i)	because of unforeseen circumstances it is necessary for a public body or specified body to hold an emergency meeting to consider matters of an emergency or urgent nature; and

(ii)

the public body or specified body gives the best notice practicable of:

(A)	the time and place of the emergency meeting; and

(B)	the topics to be considered at the emergency meeting.

(b)

An emergency meeting of a public body may not be held unless:

(i)	an attempt has been made to notify all the members of the public body; and

(ii)	a majority of the members of the public body approve the meeting.

(6)

(a)	A public notice that is required to include an agenda under Subsection (1) shall provide reasonable specificity to notify the public as to the topics to be considered at the meeting. Each topic shall be listed under an agenda item on the meeting agenda.

(b)	Subject to the provisions of Subsection (6)(c), and at the discretion of the presiding member of the public body, a topic raised by the public may be discussed during an open meeting, even if the topic raised by the public was not included in the agenda or advance public notice for the meeting.

(c)

Except as provided in Subsection (5), relating to emergency meetings, a public body may not take final action on a topic in an open meeting unless the topic is:

(i)	listed under an agenda item as required by Subsection (6)(a); and

(ii)	included with the advance public notice required by this section.

(7)	Except as provided in this section, this chapter does not apply to a specified body.

Amended by Chapter 100, 2023 General Session
Amended by Chapter 435, 2023 General Session

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