For a municipality to ask all meeting attendees to sign a sign-in sheet is “clearly in violation of the intent of the law.”

Click on the above picture to read the Open Meetings – Sunshine Act.

Indeed,  a funny (not “ha-ha” but exceedingly curious) thing did happen on the way in to Monday night’s forum … a/k/a the monthly borough council meeting. Everyone who showed up for the meeting was instructed several times prior to the convening of the meeting to sign in and indicate their addresses on a sign-in roster. Most of us looked at each other confoundedly. “What,” someone asked, “isn’t this illegal?”

While we thought it was an illegal practice, we did what we were instructed a long time ago when questioning authority, except in cases involving life safety or patently illegal acts. We did as asked, but made a note to follow up with statute research after the fact.

And that’s what we did yesterday. We contacted a legal opinion resource and related what happened. Here is the response we received.

The state’s Sunshine Act (open meetings law) says this:

“Rules and regulations for conduct of meetings
“‘Nothing in this chapter shall prohibit the agency from adopting by official action the rules and regulations necessary for the conduct of its meetings and the maintenance of order. The rules and regulations shall not be made to violate the intent of this chapter.’

“It also says that the minutes of a meeting must include:

‘”The names of all citizens who appeared officially and the subject of their testimony.’

“So, municipalities MAY, as a matter of policy, require residents and taxpayers to identify themselves by name and address before speaking at a public meeting.

“(The Sunshine Act states that a municipality may limit comment to its residents and taxpayers. So, while there is nothing to prevent a resident of another municipality from attending the meeting, unless they pay taxes to that municipality, perhaps as a property owner, they can be prohibited from commenting during the meeting.)

“A municipality may also ask those who want to address the meeting to sign in with name and address when they arrive so the secretary has the correct spelling of their name for the minutes.

“HOWEVER:There is nothing in the law that says a municipality may compel citizens to sign their names and addresses as a prerequisite for simply attending a public meeting.

“While the law clearly gives municipalities the right to adopt rules for the conduct of meetings, the law also says these rules cannot violate the intent of the law.

“To force everyone in attendance to sign in would — by putting restrictions or requirements on simple attendance — violate the intent of the Sunshine Act, which gives the public the right to be present at all meetings, and to “witness the deliberation, policy formulation and decision-making” of the agency. 

” … the state’s own publication Open Meetings/The Sunshine Act, … says the following:

“‘The Sunshine Act applies to all citizens, including nonresidents of a municipality. Meetings must be open to the general public and information made available to anyone in attendance. However, public comments may be limited to residents or taxpayers of the municipality or authority.’

“In a nutshell, public meetings must be open to all, without restriction. To require those in attendance to “sign in” is a restriction, implying that if you don’t sign in, you can’t attend. And that is clearly in violation of the intent of the law.”

In the future when you attend a governmental meeting to observe and learn more about functional or dysfunctional government … you do not have to sign a sign-in roster.