Notice, Agendas and Action Items

Notice violations are the easiest open meeting problems to prove. The rules are numbers, the postings carry timestamps, and the minutes show what was voted on. If you learn one section of this chapter cold, make it 74-204.

The clocks

The phrase "unless otherwise provided by statute" matters. Other laws often demand more. A planning commission hearing on a comprehensive plan change needs a newspaper notice at least 15 days ahead under 67-6509. Budget hearings have their own publication rules (see the lesson on public comment and hearings). The open meeting law is the floor.

Where and how

Notices and agendas go "in a prominent place at the principal office of the public agency," or at the meeting building if there's no office. Any entity with a website or social media platform must also post them electronically. The open meeting law doesn't require newspaper publication, though, as the AG manual notes, other statutes may. A special meeting notice must include at least the date, time, place and the name of the agency calling it.

And there's a media list. The secretary or designee "shall maintain a list of the news media requesting notification of meetings" and make a good faith effort to give them advance notice. The list covers news media. If you run a newsletter, a community page or other outlet that fits, ask to be added, in writing, and keep a copy of the request. If you later miss a special meeting because nobody told you, that letter shows you asked.

Emergencies

The emergency exception is narrow on purpose. It requires "injury or damage to persons or property, or immediate financial loss, or the likelihood" of those, when the notice rules "would make such notice impracticable or increase the likelihood or severity" of the harm. And "the reason for the emergency is stated at the outset of the meeting." A flood washing out a culvert qualifies. A contractor who wants an answer by Friday doesn't, unless missing Friday really means immediate financial loss, and even then the board must say so on the record at the start. Read the first page of the minutes. If the emergency reason isn't there, the exception wasn't used properly.

What an agenda has to say

The statute requires an agenda for every meeting and a good faith effort to include "all items known to be probable items of discussion." The AG manual adds that items should be listed "with specificity," not buried in catchall headings like "director's report," and that a weekly schedule listing only time and place is not an agenda.

Action items

Any agenda item that requires a vote "shall be identified on the agenda as an 'action item.'" Labeling something an action item doesn't force a vote. But a vote on an unlabeled item is a violation. This is the single most common problem you'll find when you compare agendas to minutes.

Consent agendas

A 2025 amendment (House Bill 172, effective July 1, 2025) wrote consent agenda rules into 74-204(4):

• Multiple items may be grouped and passed in one vote as a consent agenda.
• Ordinances, fee resolutions, and items requiring more than a simple majority of members present can't be on it.
• If any member asks before the vote, the item must come off and be handled separately.

So a fee schedule bundled with the bills and the minutes is a problem. So is a bond-related item needing a two-thirds vote.

Amending the agenda

The AG manual includes a sample "Motion and Order to Amend Agenda" form with a required line for the good faith reason. Boards that use it leave a clean paper trail. Boards that don't often leave none, which is itself worth noting.