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<br /> <br />3. Senate Bill 844. This bill will require narrative <br />written accounts or audio or video taped accounts of closed <br />sessions. The "account" would be a public record although it <br />could be withheld from public inspection if making it public <br />would frustrate the purpose of the closed session. This bill <br />intends to overrule a recent Supreme Court decision allowing a <br />generalized account of closed sessions as part of the n;inute~ of <br />a Board meeting. If enacted into law, this requirement of an <br />"account" of the closed session likely will have a chilling <br />effect on Board members' willingness to openly discuss matters <br />which are sensitive and therefore are afforded, by the Open <br />Meetings Law, closed session status. <br />4. House Bill 949. This bill effects the medical, <br />7 <br />hospital and any other records, including DSS investigatory <br />records, of a child who is killed as the result of suspected <br />abuse or neglect. These records in the custody of governmer_t <br />agencies will be public records if House Bill 949 is enacted into <br />law. Under present law a court can open these confidential <br />records to inspection under certain circumstances. House Bill <br />949 would place the burden on the public agency to seek a court <br />order to protest the confidentiality of the child records. In <br />addition to the privacy concerns, this bill likely will cost <br />counties. It will force the local department of social services <br />and the local health department to choose between protecting the <br />privacy of the deceased children in question knowing that the <br />privacy option will cost money, and, knowing that a decision not <br />2 <br />