50 CFR § 560.1-560.8 - Implementation of the Government in the Sunshine Act

452 50 CFR Ch. V (10–1–23 Edition) §§ 550.171–550.999 he or she shall have 60 days from the date of receipt of the additional infor mation to make his or her determina tion on the appeal. (k) The time limits cited in para graphs (g) and (j) of this section may be extended with the permission of the Assistant Attorney General. (l) The agency may delegate its au thority for conducting complaint in vestigations to other Federal agencies, except that the authority for making the final determination may not be delegated to another agency. [51 FR 4579, Feb. 5, 1986, as amended at 51 FR 4579, Feb. 5, 1986] §§ 550.171–550.999 [Reserved] PART 560—IMPLEMENTATION OF THE GOVERNMENT IN THE SUN SHINE ACT Sec. 560.1 Purpose and scope. 560.2 Definitions. 560.3 Open meetings. 560.4 Notice of meetings. 560.5 Closed meetings. 560.6 Procedures for closing meetings. 560.7 Recordkeeping requirements. 560.8 Public availability of records. AUTHORITY: 5 U.S.C. 552b(g). SOURCE: 50 FR 2571, Jan. 17, 1985, unless otherwise noted. § 560.1 Purpose and scope. This part contains the regulations of the Marine Mammal Commission im plementing the Government in the Sunshine Act (5 U.S.C. 552b). Con sistent with the Act, it is the policy of the Marine Mammal Commission that the public is entitled to the fullest practicable information regarding its decision making processes. The provi sions of this part set forth the basic re sponsibilities of the Commission with regard to this policy and offer guidance to members of the public who wish to exercise the rights established by the Act. These regulations also fulfill the requirement of 5 U.S.C. 552b(g) that each agency subject to the Act promul gate regulations to implement the open meeting requirements of subsections (b) through (f) of section 552b. § 560.2 Definitions. For purposes of this part, the term— Administrative Officer means the Ad ministrative Officer of the Marine Mammal Commission. Commission means the Marine Mam mal Commission, a collegial body es tablished under 16 U.S.C. 1401 that functions as a unit and is composed of three individual members, each of whom is appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Commissioner means an individual who is a member of the Marine Mam mal Commission. Executive Director means the Execu tive Director of the Marine Mammal Commission. General Counsel means the General Counsel of the Marine Mammal Com mission. Meeting means the deliberations of at least a majority of the members of the Commission where such deliberations determine or result in the joint con duct or disposition of official Commis sion business, but does not include an individual Commissioner’s consider ation of official Commission business circulated in writing for disposition ei ther by notation or by separate, se quential consideration, and delibera tions on whether to: (1) Hold a meeting with less than 7 days notice, as provided in § 560.4(d) of this part; (2) Change the subject matter of a publicly announced meeting or the de termination of the Commission to open or close a meeting or portions thereof to public observation, as provided in § 560.4(e) of this part; (3) Change the time or place of an an nounced meeting, as provided in § 560.4(f) of this part; (4) Close a meeting or portions of a meeting, as provided in § 560.5 of this part; or (5) Withhold from disclosure informa tion pertaining to a meeting or por tions of a meeting, as provided in § 560.5 of this part. Public observation means attendance by one or more members of the public at a meeting of the Commission, but does not include participation in the meeting. 453 Marine Mammal Commission § 560.5 Public participation means the presen tation or discussion of information, raising of questions, or other manner of involvement in a meeting of the Commission by one or more members of the public in a manner that contrib utes to the disposition of Commission business. § 560.3 Open meetings. (a) Except as otherwise provided in this part, every portion of every meet ing of the Commission shall be open to public observation. (b) Meetings of the Commission, or portions thereof, shall be open to pub lic participation only when an an nouncement to that effect is issued under § 560.4(b)(4) of this part. Public participation shall be conducted in an orderly, nondisruptive manner and in accordance with such procedures as the chairperson of the meeting may estab lish. Public participation may be ter minated at any time for any reason. (c) When holding open meetings, the Commission shall make a diligent ef fort to provide ample space, sufficient visibility, and adequate acoustics to accommodate the public attendance anticipated for the meeting. (d) Members of the public may record open meetings of the Commission by means of any mechanical or electronic device, unless the chairperson of the meeting determines that such record ing would disrupt the orderly conduct of the meeting. § 560.4 Notice of meetings. (a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, the Commission shall make a public announcement at least 7 days prior to a meeting. (b) The public announcement shall include: (1) The time and place of the meet ing; (2) The subject matter of the meet ing; (3) Whether the meeting is to be open, closed, or portions thereof closed; (4) Whether public participation will be allowed; and (5) The name and telephone number of the person who will respond to re quests for information about the meet ing. (c) The public announcement require ment shall be implemented by: (1) Submitting the announcement for publication in the FEDERAL REGISTER; (2) Distributing the announcement to affected governmental entities; (3) Mailing the announcement to per sons and organizations known to have an interest in the subject matter of the meeting; and (4) Other means that the Executive Director deems appropriate to inform interested parties. (d) A meeting may be held with less than 7 days notice if a majority of the members of the Commission determine by recorded vote that the business of the Commission so requires. The Com mission shall make a public announce ment to this effect at the earliest prac ticable time. The announcement shall include the information required by paragraph (b) of this section and shall be issued in accordance with those pro cedures set forth in paragraph (c) of this section that are practicable given the available period of time. (e) The subject matter of an an nounced meeting, or the determination of the Commission to open or close a meeting or portions thereof to public observation, may be changed if a ma jority of the members of the Commis sion determine by recorded vote that Commission business so requires and that no earlier announcement of the change was possible. The Commission shall make a public announcement of the changes made and the vote of each member on each change at the earliest practicable time. The announcement shall be issued in accordance with those procedures set forth in paragraph (c) of this section that are practicable given the available period of time. (f) The time or place of an announced meeting may be changed only if a pub lic announcement of the change is made at the earliest practicable time. The announcement shall be issued in accordance with those procedures set forth in paragraph (c) of this section that are practicable given the available period of time. § 560.5 Closed meetings. (a) A meeting or portions thereof may be closed, and information per taining to such meeting or portions 454 50 CFR Ch. V (10–1–23 Edition) § 560.6 thereof may be withheld from the pub lic, only if the Commission determines that such meeting or portions thereof, or the disclosure of such information, is likely to: (1) Disclose matters that are (i) spe cifically authorized under criteria es tablished by an Executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy and (ii) in fact properly classified pursuant to that Ex ecutive order; (2) Relate solely to the internal per sonnel rules and practices of the Com mission; (3) Disclose matters specifically ex empted from disclosure by statute (other than the Freedom of Informa tion Act, 5 U.S.C. 552), provided that the statute: (i) Requires that the matters be with held from the public in such a manner as to leave no discretion on the issue, or (ii) Establishes particular criteria for withholding or refers to particular types of matters to be withheld; (4) Disclose the trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential; (5) Involve either accusing any per son of a crime or formally censuring any person; (6) Disclose information of a personal nature, if disclosure would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of per sonal privacy; (7) Disclose either investigatory records compiled for law enforcement purposes or information which if writ ten would be contained in such records, but only to the extent that the produc tion of the records or information would: (i) Interfere with enforcement pro ceedings, (ii) Deprive a person of a right to ei ther a fair trial or an impartial ajudication, (iii) Constitute an unwarranted inva sion of personal privacy, (iv) Disclose the identity of a con fidential source or sources and, in the case of a record compiled either by a criminal law enforcement authority in the course of a criminal investigation or by an agency conducting a lawful national security intelligence inves tigation, confidential information fur nished only by the confidential source or sources, (v) Disclose investigative techniques and procedures, or (vi) Endanger the life or physical safety of law enforcement personnel; (8) Disclose information contained in or related to examination, operating, or condition reports prepared by, on be half of, or for the use of an agency re sponsible for the regulation or super vision of financial institutions; (9) Disclose information the pre mature disclosure of which would be likely to significantly frustrate imple mentation of a proposed action of the Commission. This exception shall not apply in any instance where the Com mission has already disclosed to the public the content or nature of the pro posed action or where the Commission is required by law to make such disclo sure on its own initiative prior to tak ing final action on the proposal; or (10) Specifically concern the issuance of a subpoena by the Commission, or the participation of the Commission in a civil action or proceeding, an action in a foreign court or international tri bunal, or an arbitration, or the initi ation, conduct, or disposition by the Commission of a particular case of for mal adjudication pursuant to the pro cedures in 5 U.S.C. 554 or otherwise in volving a determination on the record after opportunity for a hearing. (b) Before a meeting or portions thereof may be closed to public obser vation, the Commission shall deter mine, notwithstanding the exemptions set forth in paragraph (a) of this sec tion, whether or not the public interest requires that the meeting or portions thereof be open. The Commission may open a meeting or portions thereof that could be closed under paragraph (a) of this section if the Commission finds it to be in the public interest to do so. § 560.6 Procedures for closing meet ings. (a) A meeting or portions thereof may be closed and information per taining to such meeting or portions thereof may be withheld under § 560.5 of this part only when a majority of the members of the Commission vote to take such action. 455 Marine Mammal Commission § 560.8 (b) A separate vote of the members of the Commission shall be taken with re spect to each meeting or portion there of proposed to be closed and with re spect to information which is proposed to be withheld. A single vote may be taken with respect to a series of meet ings or portions thereof which are pro posed to be closed, so long as each meeting or portion thereof in such se ries involves the same particular mat ter and is scheduled to be held no more than thirty days after the initial meet ing in such series. The vote of each par ticipating Commission member shall be recorded, and no proxies shall be al lowed. (c) A person whose interests may be directly affected by a portion of a meeting may request in writing that the Commission close that portion of the meeting for any of the reasons re ferred to in § 560.5(a) (5), (6) or (7) of this part. Upon the request of a Com missioner, a recorded vote shall be taken whether to close such meeting or a portion thereof. (d) Before the Commission may hold a meeting that is closed, in whole or part, a certification shall be obtained from the General Counsel that, in his or her opinion, the meeting may prop erly be closed. The certification shall be in writing and shall state each ap plicable exemptive provision from § 560.5(a) of this part. (e) Within one day of a vote taken pursuant to this section, the Commis sion shall make publicly available a written copy of such vote reflecting the vote of each Commissioner. (f) In the case of the closure of a meeting or portions thereof, the Com mission shall make publicly available within one day of the vote on such ac tion a full written explanation of the reasons for the closing together with a list of all persons expected to attend the meeting and their affiliation. § 560.7 Recordkeeping requirements. (a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, the Commission shall maintain either a complete transcript or electronic recording of the pro ceedings of each meeting, whether opened or closed. (b) In the case of either a meeting or portions of a meeting closed to the public pursuant to § 560.5(a) (8) or (10) of this part, the Commission shall main tain a complete transcript, an elec tronic recording, or a set of minutes of the proceedings. If minutes are main tained, they shall fully and clearly de scribe all matters discussed and shall provide a full and accurate summary of any actions taken and the reasons for which such actions were taken, includ ing a description of the views expressed on any item and a record reflecting the vote of each Commissioner. All docu ments considered in connection with any action shall be identified in the minutes. (c) The transcript, electronic record ing, or copy of the minutes shall dis close the identity of each speaker. (d) The Commission shall maintain a complete verbatim copy of the tran script, a complete electronic recording, or a complete copy of the minutes of the proceedings of each meeting for at least two years, or for one year after the conclusion of any Commission pro ceeding with respect to which the meeting was held, whichever occurs later. § 560.8 Public availability of records. (a) The Commission shall make available to the public the transcript, electronic recording, or minutes of a meeting, except for items of discussion or testimony that relate to matters the Commission has determined to contain information which may be withheld under § 560.5 of this part. (b) The transcript, electronic record ings or minutes of a meeting shall be made available for public review as soon as practicable after each meeting at the Marine Mammal Commission, 1625 I Street NW., Washington, DC 20006. (c) Copies of the transcript, a tran scription of the electronic recording, or the minutes of a meeting shall be fur nished at cost to any person upon writ ten request. Written requests should be addressed to the Administrative Offi cer, Marine Mammal Commission, 1625 I Street NW., Washington, DC 20006. PARTS 561–599 [RESERVED]