On January 1, 2024, HB 2805 went into effect adding a new mandatory public meetings training requirement for every member of a governing body of a public body with total expenditures of $1 million or more per fiscal year. These governing body members must receive Public Meetings Law training at least once during their term of office.  

The Oregon Government Ethics Commission (OGEC) planned to begin providing Public Meetings Law trainings this month. We recently shared in our weekly email update that they had added these webinars to their website with information about how to register. Unfortunately, the webinars have been removed from their site and are no longer available.

We recently learned that OGEC has delayed the review and approval of the Public Meetings Law trainings offered by outside agencies, including SDAO, until later this year. While you can continue to take our trainings on this topic, they will not fulfill the training requirement because they have not yet been approved by OGEC.

It’s important to note that only trainings reviewed and approved by OGEC will fulfill the training requirement. However, the training requirement does not need to be satisfied immediately. It only needs to be completed once per term.

We will continue to keep you updated and will notify you as soon as we know about the availability of OGEC trainings and the approval of SDAO trainings.

If you would like to receive updates on OGEC’s Public Meetings Law trainings, you can sign up for OGEC’s Public Meetings Law trainings email list on OGEC’s website at: https://www.oregon.gov/ogec/Public-Meetings-Law/Pages/Training-Review.aspx