GOVERNOR'S VETO

Pursuant to § 6 of Article V of the Constitution of Virginia, I am vetoing Senate Bill 156.

The concerns that I addressed in my original letter to the Senate on April 16, 1998 are still pertinent. Current law embodied in §2.1-343 of the Code of Virginia provides quite clearly:

A. It is a violation of this chapter for any political subdivision or any governing body, authority, board, bureau, commission, district or agency of local government to conduct a meeting where the public business is discussed or transacted through telephonic, video, electronic or other communication means where the members are not physically assembled.

Senate Bill 156 provides that, among other things, any committee of the General Assembly can meet through "electronic communication means" without any two members of that committee being in the same physical location as long as each member is in a place in Virginia that is open and accessible to the public.

Public meetings of governing bodies physically present in a common place are hallmarks of a free and open society. While our society is moving rapidly towards the 21st Century and a cyber-society, it is imperative that we remain true to the tenets good government, by ensuring that the representatives that make up the oldest continuous legislative body remain accountable to the people who elected them. In §2.1-343.1 the General Assembly has wisely preserved that value.

Accordingly, I am returning this bill without my signature.