HOUSE BILL NO. 2562 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE COSTLOW.
6195H.01I JOSEPH ENGLER, Chief Clerk
AN ACT To repeal section 610.021, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to the sunshine law.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Section 610.021, RSMo, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu 2 thereof, to be known as section 610.021, to read as follows: 610.021. Except to the extent disclosure is otherwise required by law, a public 2 governmental body is authorized to close meetings, records and votes, to the extent they relate 3 to the following: 4 (1) Legal actions, causes of action or litigation involving a public governmental body 5 and any confidential or privileged communications between a public governmental body or 6 its representatives and its attorneys. However, any minutes, vote or settlement agreement 7 relating to legal actions, causes of action or litigation involving a public governmental body 8 or any agent or entity representing its interests or acting on its behalf or with its authority, 9 including any insurance company acting on behalf of a public government body as its insured, 10 shall be made public upon final disposition of the matter voted upon or upon the signing by 11 the parties of the settlement agreement, unless, prior to final disposition, the settlement 12 agreement is ordered closed by a court after a written finding that the adverse impact to a 13 plaintiff or plaintiffs to the action clearly outweighs the public policy considerations of 14 section 610.011, however, the amount of any moneys paid by, or on behalf of, the public 15 governmental body shall be disclosed; provided, however, in matters involving the exercise of 16 the power of eminent domain, the vote shall be announced or become public immediately
EXPLANATION — Matter enclosed in bold-faced brackets [thus] in the above bill is not enacted and is intended to be omitted from the law. Matter in bold-face type in the above bill is proposed language. HB 2562 2
17 following the action on the motion to authorize institution of such a legal action. Legal work 18 product shall be considered a closed record; 19 (2) Leasing, purchase or sale of real estate by a public governmental body where 20 public knowledge of the transaction might adversely affect the legal consideration therefor. 21 However, any minutes, vote or public record approving a contract relating to the leasing, 22 purchase or sale of real estate by a public governmental body shall be made public upon 23 execution of the lease, purchase or sale of the real estate; 24 (3) Hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting of particular employees by a public 25 governmental body when personal information about the employee is discussed or recorded. 26 However, any vote on a final decision, when taken by a public governmental body, to hire, 27 fire, promote or discipline an employee of a public governmental body shall be made 28 available with a record of how each member voted to the public within seventy-two hours of 29 the close of the meeting where such action occurs; provided, however, that any employee so 30 affected shall be entitled to prompt notice of such decision during the seventy-two-hour 31 period before such decision is made available to the public. As used in this subdivision, the 32 term "personal information" means information relating to the performance or merit of 33 individual employees; 34 (4) The state militia or national guard or any part thereof; 35 (5) Nonjudicial mental or physical health proceedings involving identifiable persons, 36 including medical, psychiatric, psychological, or alcoholism or drug dependency diagnosis or 37 treatment; 38 (6) Scholastic probation, expulsion, or graduation of identifiable individuals, 39 including records of individual test or examination scores; however, personally identifiable 40 student records maintained by public educational institutions shall be open for inspection by 41 the parents, guardian or other custodian of students under the age of eighteen years and by the 42 parents, guardian or other custodian and the student if the student is over the age of eighteen 43 years; 44 (7) Testing and examination materials, before the test or examination is given or, if it 45 is to be given again, before so given again; 46 (8) Welfare cases of identifiable individuals; 47 (9) Preparation, including any discussions or work product, on behalf of a public 48 governmental body or its representatives for negotiations with employee groups; 49 (10) Software codes for electronic data processing and documentation thereof; 50 (11) Specifications for competitive bidding, until either the specifications are 51 officially approved by the public governmental body or the specifications are published for 52 bid; HB 2562 3
53 (12) Sealed bids and related documents, until the bids are opened; and sealed 54 proposals and related documents or any documents related to a negotiated contract until a 55 contract is executed, or all proposals are rejected; 56 (13) Individually identifiable personnel records, performance ratings or records 57 pertaining to employees or applicants for employment, except that this exemption shall not 58 apply to the names, positions, salaries and lengths of service of officers and employees of 59 public agencies once they are employed as such, and the names of private sources donating or 60 contributing money to the salary of a chancellor or president at all public colleges and 61 universities in the state of Missouri and the amount of money contributed by the source; 62 (14) Records which are protected from disclosure by law; 63 (15) Meetings and public records relating to scientific and technological innovations 64 in which the owner has a proprietary interest; 65 (16) Records relating to municipal hotlines established for the reporting of abuse and 66 wrongdoing; 67 (17) Records relating to reports of allegations of improper governmental activities 68 under section 29.221; 69 (18) Confidential or privileged communications between a public governmental body 70 and its auditor, including all auditor work product; however, all final audit reports issued by 71 the auditor are to be considered open records pursuant to this chapter; 72 (19) (a) Security measures, global positioning system (GPS) data, investigative 73 information, or investigative or surveillance techniques of any public agency responsible for 74 law enforcement or public safety that, if disclosed, has the potential to endanger the health or 75 safety of an individual or the public. 76 (b) Any information or data provided to a tip line for the purpose of safety or security 77 at an educational institution that, if disclosed, has the potential to endanger the health or 78 safety of an individual or the public. 79 (c) Any information contained in any suspicious activity report provided to law 80 enforcement that, if disclosed, has the potential to endanger the health or safety of an 81 individual or the public. 82 (d) Operational guidelines, policies and specific response plans developed, adopted, 83 or maintained by any public agency responsible for law enforcement, public safety, first 84 response, or public health for use in responding to or preventing any critical incident which 85 has the potential to endanger individual or public safety or health. Financial records related to 86 the procurement of or expenditures relating to operational guidelines, policies or plans 87 purchased with public funds shall be open. When seeking to close information pursuant to 88 this exception, the public governmental body shall affirmatively state in writing that 89 disclosure would impair the public governmental body's ability to protect the security or HB 2562 4
90 safety of persons or real property, and shall in the same writing state that the public interest in 91 nondisclosure outweighs the public interest in disclosure of the records; 92 (20) Existing or proposed security systems and structural plans of real property 93 owned or leased by a public governmental body, and information that is voluntarily submitted 94 by a nonpublic entity owning or operating an infrastructure to any public governmental body 95 for use by that body to devise plans for protection of that infrastructure, the public disclosure 96 of which would threaten public safety: 97 (a) Records related to the procurement of or expenditures relating to security systems 98 purchased with public funds shall be open; 99 (b) When seeking to close information pursuant to this exception, the public 100 governmental body shall affirmatively state in writing that disclosure would impair the public 101 governmental body's ability to protect the security or safety of persons or real property, and 102 shall in the same writing state that the public interest in nondisclosure outweighs the public 103 interest in disclosure of the records; 104 (c) Records that are voluntarily submitted by a nonpublic entity shall be reviewed by 105 the receiving agency within ninety days of submission to determine if retention of the 106 document is necessary in furtherance of a state security interest. If retention is not necessary, 107 the documents shall be returned to the nonpublic governmental body or destroyed; 108 (21) The portion of a record that identifies security systems or access codes or 109 authorization codes for security systems of real property; 110 (22) Records that identify the configuration of components or the operation of a 111 computer, computer system, computer network, or telecommunications network, and would 112 allow unauthorized access to or unlawful disruption of a computer, computer system, 113 computer network, or telecommunications network of a public governmental body. This 114 exception shall not be used to limit or deny access to otherwise public records in a file, 115 document, data file or database containing public records. Records related to the procurement 116 of or expenditures relating to such computer, computer system, computer network, or 117 telecommunications network, including the amount of moneys paid by, or on behalf of, a 118 public governmental body for such computer, computer system, computer network, or 119 telecommunications network shall be open; 120 (23) Credit card numbers, personal identification numbers, digital certificates, 121 physical and virtual keys, access codes or authorization codes that are used to protect the 122 security of electronic transactions between a public governmental body and a person or entity 123 doing business with a public governmental body. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to 124 close the record of a person or entity using a credit card held in the name of a public 125 governmental body or any record of a transaction made by a person using a credit card or 126 other method of payment for which reimbursement is made by a public governmental body; HB 2562 5
127 (24) Records submitted by an individual, corporation, or other business entity to a 128 public institution of higher education in connection with a proposal to license intellectual 129 property or perform sponsored research and which contains sales projections or other 130 business plan information the disclosure of which may endanger the competitiveness of a 131 business; 132 (25) Records relating to foster home or kinship placements of children in foster care 133 under section 210.498; 134 (26) Individually identifiable customer usage and billing records for customers of a 135 municipally owned utility or a utility operated by any political subdivision created by Article 136 VI, Section 30(a) of the Constitution of Missouri, unless the records are requested by the 137 customer or authorized for release by the customer, except that a municipally owned utility or 138 a utility operated by any political subdivision created by Article VI, Section 30(a) of the 139 Constitution of Missouri shall make available to the public the customer's name, billing 140 address, location of service, and dates of service provided for any commercial service 141 account; 142 (27) Any portion of a record that contains individually identifiable information of a 143 minor under eighteen years of age held by a public governmental body, if such public 144 governmental body is a city, town, village, or park board except when such records are 145 requested by the division of labor standards within the department of labor and industrial 146 relations for the purpose of enforcing chapter 294; 147 (28) Individually identifiable customer information for visitors who make a camping, 148 lodging, or shelter reservation for a county park, municipal park, or Missouri state park or 149 state historic site unless the records are requested by the visitor or authorized for release by 150 the visitor, and except that this exemption shall not apply to the municipality of residence and 151 the zip code of residence of the visitor; [and] 152 (29) Records to protect the specific location of a plant or animal species considered 153 endangered, threatened, critically imperiled, imperiled, or vulnerable when the known 154 location may cause the species to be at an increased risk of peril; and 155 (30) Records relating to security or travel for elected officials that if disclosed 156 would endanger the safety of the official or the general public. ✔
Statutes affected: