Montgomery, AL – State Attorney General Troy King says Alabama's banking board may meet in secret if its entire agenda that day is confidential.
King's opinion, published Monday, said the board can meet in secret if it is considering information about banks that are failing or in danger of failing if nothing else is on the agenda.
State law gives the board wide latitude in handling internal matters of banks in executive sessions.
The banking board met Aug. 10, four days before it seized Colonial Bank in a meeting originally scheduled for Aug. 12. State law generally requires notice of a changed meetings, and Dennis Bailey, attorney for the Alabama Press Association, was quoted in a story in the Aug. 12 edition of the Montgomery Advertiser questioning the legality of the meeting.
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