Montana Code 2-3-103. Public participation — governor to ensure guidelines adopted — procedures for publishing notice
2-3-103. Public participation — governor to ensure guidelines adopted — procedures for publishing notice. (1) (a) Each agency shall develop procedures for permitting and encouraging the public to participate in agency decisions that are of significant interest to the public. The procedures must ensure adequate notice and assist public participation before a final agency action is taken that is of significant interest to the public.
Terms Used In Montana Code 2-3-103
- Agency: means any board, bureau, commission, department, authority, or officer of the state or local government authorized by law to make rules, determine contested cases, or enter into contracts except:
(a)the legislature and any branch, committee, or officer thereof;
(b)the judicial branches and any committee or officer thereof;
(c)the governor, except that an agency is not exempt because the governor has been designated as a member thereof; or
(d)the state military establishment and agencies concerned with civil defense and recovery from hostile attack. See Montana Code 2-3-102
- Agency action: means the whole or a part of the adoption of an agency rule, the issuance of a license or order, the award of a contract, or the equivalent or denial thereof. See Montana Code 2-3-102
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
(b)The agency shall publish an agenda for a meeting, as defined in 2-3-202, as follows:
(i)if a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the agency is located publishes electronic notices and links to meeting agendas free of charge to the agency on the newspaper’s website, the agency shall provide the notice and agenda to the newspaper to post on the newspaper’s website;
(ii)if the agency does not have an option to post notices and links to meeting agendas free of charge, the agency shall provide adequate notice of a meeting by doing at least one of the following:
(A)posting a link to the meeting agenda on the agency’s primary website; or
(B)posting the agenda on the social media site of the agency.
(c)The agenda must include an item allowing public comment on any public matter that is not on the agenda of the meeting and that is within the jurisdiction of the agency conducting the meeting. However, the agency may not take action on any matter discussed unless specific notice of that matter is included on an agenda and public comment has been allowed on that matter.
(d)Public comment received at a meeting must be incorporated into the official minutes of the meeting, as provided in 2-3-212.
(e)For purposes of this section, “public matter” does not include contested case and other adjudicative proceedings.
(2)The governor shall ensure that each board, bureau, commission, department, authority, agency, or officer of the executive branch of the state adopts coordinated rules for its programs. The guidelines must provide policies and procedures to facilitate public participation in those programs, consistent with subsection (1). These guidelines must be adopted as rules and published in a manner so that the rules may be provided to a member of the public upon request.