Student Government in violation of state law

           The Student Government Association has closed its executive board meetings from the public on a weekly basis, citing "personnel" is- sues as the reason for the closures.

           In closing its E-Board meetings, the SGA is in violation of Georgia's Open Meetings Act, according to the Georgia First Amendment Foundation and the Student Press Law Center.                                                

          "Unless you have a specific reason that you can point to under the law, and unless you go through the proper process for doing that, you are in violation," said Mike Hiestand, a consulting attorney for the SPLC.      

         "Once you assume that role and those responsibilities, it comes with it another responsibility to comply with the laws that say the business you can set needs to be done publically," Hiestand said.

          SGA E-Board members refused to allow Signal reporters into its meeting on Oct. 5, saying it was closed to discuss "personnel" issues.

        Two weeks later, the doors were locked for its Oct. 19 meeting. The Executive Board is comprised of the president, executive vice president, the five sub-committee vice presidents, the president pro tempore and the chief justice of the student judicial board, who sits as a non-voting ex official member.

       SGA President, James Dutton, has said that the E-Board meetings must be kept closed discuss filling vacancies within the University Senate. The University Senate is an SGA organization tasked with representing the students and al- locating fee money.

        "We need to talk frankly and candidly about those positions and the people that we need to fill," Dutton said. "That's why the meeting is closed." State law allows public meetings to be closed for specific exceptions, including personnel decisions.

         However, meetings that discuss taking action on "filling of a vacancy in the membership of the agency itself shall at all times be open to the public," according to § 50- 14-3 (6) of the Official Code of Georgia   

        Annotated. E-Board members also discuss official business involving the proceedings of the various SGA committees during these meetings, in addition to filling Senate vacancies, according to Dutton,

      "The way the constitution works is that a lot of stuff has to go to the E- Board first and then it goes to the Senate," Dutton said. "It's all made public  none of it is clandestine.

      " While Dutton has offered to allow Signal reporters into its E-Board meetings previously, he has placed conditions on the offer by requiring that they notify the E-Board in advance.

      "Our E-Board meetings are not generally open," said Dutton in a voicemail left before the Oct. 5 meeting. "If you'd like to set up a time to maybe come and visit one of our E-Board meetings, we can do that on an as needed basis."

      The law on whether the Open Meetings Act applies to university institutions is pretty clear, according to the SPLC. "Where it can be demonstrated that a student government has been granted some degree of decision- making authority by the state, such as allocation and distribution of student activity fees collected by the school - a task that the school itself would be required to perform if the student government did not exist - the Open Meetings law almost certainly would apply," the SPLC said.

       That is also Georgia State's official policy in regards to Open Meetings laws, university spokeswoman Andrea Jones said. "The university believes meetings should be open unless there is a legitimate reason to close them," Jones said.

         However, Dutton has said that dis- cussing filling vacant senator positions gives the E-Board "an automatic exception" to close the meeting without voting. Under the Georgia Open Meetings Act, even if a meeting has legitimate grounds to be closed, the majority of members present must vote to close the meeting in public and must provide a specific exemption in the law with which to close the meeting.

          Ordinarily, the names of the members present and those voting for the closure must be publishing in the meeting's minutes. Further, the chair- person presiding over the meeting, must file a notarized affidavit certifying the reasons behind the closure.

         Dutton said that while minutes of the E-Board meetings have been made, the E-Board has not officially voted to close any of its meetings. He has not said whether or not an affidavit has been signed for each meeting.

        Regardless, no official documents from the E-Board meetings have been made publically available. Knowingly and willfully conducting or participating in a meeting in violation of the Open Meetings Act is a misdemeanor under O.C.G.A. § 50-14-5(a).