Open Meeting Law

The Open Meeting Law was recently revised as part of the 2009 Ethics Reform Bill, and will centralize responsibility for state-wide enforcement of the law in the Office of the Attorney General.  The effective date of the revised law is July 1, 2010. 

In the coming months, the Attorney General will be reaching out to various groups to discuss the revised law.  Please check this site again for future meeting dates and training opportunities as they become available 

Until the Attorney General assumes responsibility for enforcement, your local District Attorney’s Office will continue to handle open meeting law complaints regarding cities, towns and counties.

The purpose of the Open Meeting Law is to eliminate much of the secrecy surrounding the deliberations and decisions on which public policy is based. The  Open Meeting Law supports the principle that the democratic process depends on the public having knowledge about the considerations underlying governmental action.  The Open Meeting Law requires that most meetings of governmental bodies to be held in public.   There are some exceptions, which are designed to ensure that ,public officials are not  "unduly hampered" by having  every discussion among public officials open to the public.  As a result, the Open Meeting Law provides for particular circumstances under which a meeting may be held in executive, or closed, session.

For information on the Open Meeting Law for cities and towns, M.G.L. c. 39, s. 23B, or to report a violation of that law by a city or town, please contact your local District Attorney's Office. 

For questions on the Open Meeting Law, or to report a violation of the law by a state board, commission, or committee, please contact the General Counsel's Office, within the Office of Attorney General Martha Coakley, at (617) 727-2200. 

For more comprehensive information, see the Open Meeting Guidelines (updated April 2009) available here:

• Open Meeting Law Guidelines (PDF)