Currently, under the open meetings law, with certain exceptions, meetings of
state and local governmental bodies are required to be held in open session, and
certain notice of meetings is required to be given. The law is enforced by the attorney
general or, upon the verified complaint of any person, by the district attorney of any
county where a violation occurs. Civil penalties are prescribed for violations. Any
public document, including a document that is produced in a closed session of a
governmental body or in a civil investigatory proceeding, is potentially open to public
inspection unless otherwise specifically provided by law or unless the custodian
demonstrates, at the time that a request for access is made, that the public interest
in withholding access to the document outweighs the strong public interest in
providing access. Currently, the attorney general and district attorneys have no
general authority to issue subpoenas to investigate alleged civil offenses under the
open meetings law before an enforcement action is commenced in court.

This bill permits the attorney general and any district attorney to issue
subpoenas for the purpose of requiring testimony or the production of documents to
aid in the investigation of an alleged violation of the open meetings law. The bill
provides that no person may be excused from testifying or producing a document
upon the ground that the testimony or document relates to business conducted in a

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closed session of a governmental body. The bill also provides that any document that
is produced or created as a result of the issuance of a subpoena under the bill is not
subject to the right of inspection or copying unless the information contained in that
document is subject to that right under the open records law.