A Bulletin on Iowa Open Meetings and Public Records Laws

By Attorney General Tom Miller -- November 2002

Retreats and "Working Sessions"
are Open Meetings

Public bodies occasionally schedule retreats or "working sessions" separate from regularly-scheduled meetings in order to discuss policy issues or examine new ideas. These events can help a public body to focus its mission. But retreats and working sessions are covered by Iowa's Open Meetings Law and cannot be held in private unless grounds exist to close the session.

Here are some legal guidelines for holding retreats or working sessions (Iowa Code Ch. 21):

• Discussions of policy issues -- even when no votes are taken -- are covered by the Open Meetings Law. A key purpose of Iowa's Open Meetings Law is to open the deliberative process to the public as well as votes. A meeting is covered if a quorum of the public body deliberates on matters within the scope of the body's policy-making duties.

• Retreats and working sessions should be held at a location accessible to the public. All meetings, including retreats and working sessions, must be held at a place reasonably accessible to the public. The public body may select a more casual location than is generally used for regularly-scheduled meetings, as long as the public has reasonable access.