7(1)(l)

How the Public Access Counselor has treated 7(1)(l)

Section 7(1)(l) of FOIA exempts minutes of meetings closed to the public under the Open Meetings Act when the public body has not yet made them available for public inspection. The decisions address requests for closed session minutes and verbatim audio recordings, which remain confidential until the public body determines they no longer require confidential treatment and votes to release them.

The PAC has upheld denial where the records were still unreleased closed session material. A library properly withheld closed session minutes and a verbatim recording, and a school district properly withheld several years of closed session minutes that had not been voted for release. By contrast, audio recordings of open public meetings are not covered by this exemption. A housing authority violated FOIA by withholding open-meeting recordings as deliberative material, because verbatim records of public business in open session are public records subject to disclosure.

At a glance: 3 documents from 2017(1 binding opinion, 2 determination letters). Most often cited alongside: 7(1)(a) (Federal/State-law confidentiality — or public defender case files, for documents issued under the other amendment version) (2); 7(1)(f) (Preliminary drafts, notes, and deliberative materials) (1).

Recurring issues

• Whether a verbatim audio recording of a closed session may be withheld when it has not been released under the Open Meetings Act. (Closed-session minutes and recordings of an investigation)
• Whether closed session minutes covering multiple years may be withheld when the public body has not voted to make them public. (School board closed session minutes over eight years)
• Whether audio recordings of open public meetings are public records that must be disclosed rather than withheld as deliberative material. (Audio recordings of a housing authority board's public meetings)

Practical points

• A request for closed session minutes or recordings is likely to be denied while the public body has not yet voted to release them for public inspection.
• Audio recordings of a board's open meetings are treated as public records subject to disclosure, distinct from unreleased closed session records.
• A public body withholding closed session records generally cites both the Open Meetings Act confidentiality provision and the corresponding FOIA exemption.

Summary drafted from the linked decisions and checked against them; read the decisions themselves before relying on it. Not legal advice.