From The Herald-Times (Bloomington):
Question: The meeting room for a public meeting in Monroe County was too small to accommodate the crowd that wanted to attend. Was it a violation of the Open Door Law to hold the meeting there?
Answer: The Open Door Law has no mandate requiring a governing body to move its meeting when the audience exceeds the capacity for the meeting room, so there would be no violation for the meeting to go as scheduled.
From a public-relations standpoint, one would hope that when a governing body anticipates a crowd that they would conduct the meeting in a facility that could accommodate the number of interested citizens.
Contact Steve Key, HSPA executive director and general counsel, with media law questions at skey@hspa.com or (317) 624-4427.
