When government bodies meet behind closed doors, bad things happen. Even if there is no misconduct, the business of the taxpayers gets shrouded with secrecy.

Open government laws attempt to protect against such activity. The New York Coalition on Open Government offered a description of this state’s laws for Sunshine Week — which was created in 2005 to spotlight and fight against governmental secrecy.

Coalition president Paul Wolf started by discussing the state Open Meetings Law.

The law “applies to public bodies. Public bodies are entities that consist of two or more members that perform a governmental function,” he said. Non-profit groups are not subject to the law. Committees with advisory power only usually are not, but there are exceptions — such as if all the members are government officials.

The law requires public notice of 72 hours for meetings scheduled a week in advance. If scheduled less than a week in advance, “they have to give notice as best as they can. This is certainly subject to great abuse,” Wolf said.

A “terrible exception” to the law is that political caucuses are not subject to it, he said.

As of 2011, municipalities have been required to post meeting documents, such as agendas, online. “It astounds me that to this day, many years later, public bodies aren’t doing it, claim to not know it’s required,” Wolf said.

Minutes or recordings of meetings must also be posted online within two weeks. There is no requirement for a board to approve the posting.

Wolf said executive sessions, which are closed to the public, should not be scheduled in advance.

They must be motioned publicly. In addition, “just saying ‘litigation’ (as a reason for an executive session) is not enough…if you as a board are just getting an update in the status of a legal matter, that can occur in public, and it should.”

“If it’s collective bargaining you should say the name of the union you’re discussing,” he added.

Wolf said “executive sessions should be rare and held for the right reasons. … you have the right to go in private, but you don’t have to do it. I think all too often there’s a culture of secrecy in public bodies.”

He also discussed the Freedom of Information Law. “All government records are presumed to be available to the public. We start with that presumption,” he said.

The state Legislature and judiciary system are exempt from the law.

Every public body must designate a records access officer, and an appeals officer if a document request is denied. Requests for records are supposed to be acknowledged within five business days. Bodies have 30 days to accept or deny the request. They can also say more time is needed.

“They can’t just typically blanket deny your request. They have to give a reason,” Wolf said.