SELLERSBURG — Nearly 50 members of the public discovered the ins and outs of what governmental entities have to provide to their citizens Thursday night.

There was a public access seminar at Ivy Tech Community College in Sellersburg where a three-member panel answered questions on open-door laws, what documents are public records and how to go about ensuring local government is complying.

Before the seminar began, which included government officials, attorneys and the public, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller encouraged citizens to be active participants in using the open records and meetings laws.

“The American experiment in democracy comes from a fundamental distrust in government,” he said. “The fact that you’ve come and you’re interested in this subject means that you want to access information from the government. Maybe, like our constitutional founders, you don’t trust government. Keep it up. It’s a good thing.”

Zoeller added that new technology is changing the face of open door laws and offered the goal of adding more information online and a platform where the public can access their public records.

A detailed discussion of what constitutes an open meeting and what exceptions are allowed followed, but new state laws may add teeth to ensuring governments are complying with requests from the public.

One piece of legislation set to go into effect in January 2013 allows for fines to be assessed if there is a deliberate violation of the open-door law.

Hoosier State Press Association General Counsel Stephen Key said a judge can levy a fine of $100 for the first offense and $500 for a subsequent offense on open-door laws.

However, he added there are steps that should be taken before a complaint would ever get to that point. He said first a complaint should be presented to the public access counselor to get their opinion on the potential violation and another provision stipulates the violation has to be intentional.

Indiana Public Access Counselor Joe Hoage said the most common error government entities make is failing to post proper notice of a regular meeting.

He explained the press can request, at the beginning of the year, to receive notice of all meetings held by the entity. The governmental body is required to send a notice 48 hours in advance before a meeting. But in light of technological advancements, the general assembly also recently passed a law that local governmental bodies can provide the same information for citizens that request an individualized notice, which could be easily sent out in an email list, Hoage said.

“That legislation doesn’t start until July 1, 2013,” he said. “At that point the local bodies would have to determine whether to develop that policy. I can’t really think of a good reason why an agency wouldn’t want to do that.”

Matt Light, chief counsel of the Advisor Division of the Attorney General’s office, agreed and urged citizens to ensure local governments do enact the policy.

“If those governing bodies don’t take advantage of that option, push them to do it,” he said.

But like all rules, there are exceptions to what a governmental entity has to provide.

One exception is when an entity holds an executive session, but Key said the body holding the private meeting must prove they have the right to do so.

“When a governing body is meeting and they want to have a closed-door meeting — executive session — the burden is on them to prove they have the statutory authority that they can go behind a closed door,” he said. “You don’t have to prove that they have to be open, they have to prove they can close the doors on the public.”

He added the government has to cite statute that allows them to hold executive session and if any meeting is held improperly, anyone at the meeting doesn’t have any obligation to keep what was discussed secret.

Another exclusion is that a body cannot vote in executive session.

“You can never take final action at an executive session,” Hoage said.

Key added that if that final action is taken, it can be declared null and void.

Another limitation on requests is that public access to records deals with actual record, not the response to why a record was passed, Hoage said. But it was added when you request something, you don’t have to tell the governmental entity why you want it.

And Key pointed out another unique characteristic to the open-door and public records laws.

“You as citizens are the ones who enforce the law,” he said.