Legal Definitions - sunshine committee

A sunshine committee is a formal group, typically established by a government body or a public institution, whose operations, discussions, and records are intentionally made accessible to the public. The fundamental principle behind a sunshine committee is transparency, ensuring that citizens can observe how decisions are made and understand the work being undertaken on their behalf.

Here are some examples to illustrate this concept:

• Imagine a city council in a small town forms a special committee to explore options for revitalizing the downtown area. This committee holds all its meetings in a public forum, posts detailed agendas online several days in advance, and publishes the minutes of each session on the city's website. Residents are encouraged to attend and can even submit written comments for the committee's consideration.

  This is a sunshine committee because it is an official body (formed by the city council) whose entire process, from planning to discussion and documentation, is open for public observation and input, promoting transparency in local governance.

• Consider a state-level Department of Education that creates a task force to review and recommend changes to the public school curriculum. This task force schedules its meetings in various locations across the state, live-streams all its sessions on the department's website, and maintains a public online portal where all research materials, draft proposals, and public feedback are posted for anyone to view.

  This task force functions as a sunshine committee because, despite being a temporary, quasi-official body, it ensures its proceedings and work products are widely accessible to the public, allowing educators, parents, and taxpayers to monitor its progress and influence its recommendations.

• A public university's Board of Regents establishes an ad-hoc committee to investigate the feasibility of building a new student recreation center. This committee publicly announces its meeting schedule, allows students, faculty, and community members to attend its discussions, and publishes all financial reports, architectural plans, and feasibility studies on the university's official website.

  This committee exemplifies a sunshine committee because, as an official body of a public institution, it operates with full transparency, making its deliberations and supporting documentation available for scrutiny by all interested parties within the university community and beyond.