Right-to-Know law changes coming to Granite State Jan. 1

Posted: Wednesday, December 28, 2016

By Meghan Foley Sentinel Staff

 

Requiring public boards to keep more detailed nonpublic meeting minutes and exempting some footage recorded from police body cameras are among the changes to the New Hampshire Right-to-Know law set to take effect Jan. 1. Nonpublic meeting minutes will now be required to contain details similar to those found in public meeting minutes.

And a section has been added to the Right-to-Know law limiting what footage the public can view on cameras worn by law enforcement officers.

Both amendments, as well as a third, were approved by the state Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Maggie Hassan during the 2016 session.

State Rep. Michael J. Sylvia, R-Belmont, was the prime sponsor of two bills that led to the changes in how nonpublic meeting minutes are recorded.

The new rules require those minutes to include the names of board members in the sessions, the names of people appearing before the boards, a brief description of what was being discussed and any final decisions.

That provision isn’t in the law now.

The nonpublic minutes must also have the vote of each board member on each decision. Nonpublic meeting minutes are available after 72 hours, provided the board has not voted publicly to seal them.

The changes give people more confidence in their public officials, Sylvia said, and let them know who was involved so they would know who to talk to if they wanted to get an idea of what happened, or know why someone voted a certain way.

Boards and commissions go into nonpublic sessions for good reasons, he said. The idea is to get as much information out to the public about what happened in those meetings, but not give up what the meeting was about, he said.

“It’s just transparency,” he said.

A third amendment to the Right-to-Know law, which went into effect in June, allows public bodies to discuss correspondence from their legal counsel in nonpublic session regardless of whether their attorney is present.

Previously, boards and commissions were only allowed to discuss pending or ongoing litigation in nonpublic session, and not correspondence from legal counsel.

The N.H. Right-to-Know law sets out rules for local, county and state boards and committees to follow when conducting business in public or private. That includes stating when meetings are open to the public, how board members should interact with their counterparts outside of meetings, and what records are available for public access, and when.

Keene City Clerk Patricia A. Little said the new rules for how nonpublic meeting minutes are kept will be a slight change for city officials. Those taking minutes for city boards and committees don’t capture a roll call of who is in attendance, but now will have to under the new regulations, she said.

The provision requiring minutes reflect who voted, and in which direction, wouldn’t affect the city because boards and committees only vote in public session, she said.

Swanzey Town Administrator Michael T. Branley said the new requirements won’t affect the town, as officials have already been recording minutes with the details required in the new law, he said.

The problem before was that the requirements weren’t clear, he said.

Under another new provision in the law, video and audio recordings made by law enforcement officers using body cameras are exempt from the Right-to-Know law unless they meet certain criteria. That means people can still request footage, but only depicting any restraint or use of force by an officer, the discharge of a firearm, or an encounter resulting in an arrest for a felony-level offense.

Any recordings that constitute an invasion of privacy would be exempt, according to the law.

Currently, the law doesn’t provide any guidelines for what information is available from body cameras to the public.

While the law has some exemptions, anyone could still file a Right-to-Know request for footage from a body camera, Keene Police Chief Brian C. Costa said.

And that concerns him because that footage of a person who is not likely in a good place in life could then end up on YouTube, he said.

“I don’t have any problem with either a victim, suspect or witness wanting to see the footage captured,” he said. “That is absolutely their right. My sole concern is someone having no interaction whatsoever in the situation file a request for all the footage, and once they have it, they end up posting it for everyone to see.”

The Keene Police Department doesn’t use body cameras.

Body cameras are tools for police departments, but they’re no substitute for hiring the right people with the right temperament and holding them accountable to national and department standards, Costa said.

As the new rules take effect, the legislative vetting process for seven bills proposing changes to the Right-to-Know law will begin for the 2017 session.

The proposals include exempting building plans from the Right-to-Know law, expanding the law to include certain motor vehicle records, establishing a commission to study processes to resolve Right-to-Know complaints, and establishing a commission to study the costs of information requests under the law.

Meghan Foley can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436, or mfoley@keenesentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @MFoleyKS.