(a) General. No meeting or portion of a meeting may be closed to the public observation under this section unless a majority of the Commissioners votes to take such action. The closing of one portion of a meeting shall not justify closing any other portion of a meeting.

(b) Certification. Each time the Commission votes to close a meeting, the General Counsel shall publicly certify that, in his or her opinion, each item on the agenda may properly be closed to public observation. The certification shall state each relevant exemption provision. The original copy of the certification shall be attached to, and preserved with, the statement required by 11 CFR 2.5(d).

(c) Voting procedures.

(1) No meeting need be held to consider closing a meeting. The Commission may vote to close a meeting or any portion thereof by using its notation vote procedures.

(i) A separate vote shall be taken with respect to each item on an agenda proposed to be closed in whole or in part pursuant to 11 CFR 2.4, or with respect to any information proposed to be withheld under 11 CFR 2.4.

(ii) A single vote may be taken with respect to a particular matter to be discussed in a series of closed meetings, or with respect to any information concerning such series of meetings, so long as each meeting in the series is scheduled to be held no more than 30 days after the initial meeting.

(iii) This section shall not affect the Commission's practice of setting dates for closed meetings more than 30 days in advance of such meetings.

(2) The Commission Secretary shall record the vote of each Commissioner participating in the vote. No proxies, written or otherwise, shall be counted.

(3)

(i) A Commissioner may object to a recommendation to close the discussion of a particular matter or may assert a claim of exemption for a matter scheduled to be discussed in an open meeting. Such objection or assertion will be discussed by the Commission at the next scheduled closed meeting, to determine whether the matter in question should be discussed in a closed meeting.

(ii) An objection for the record only will not cause the objection to be placed on any agenda.

(d) Public statement of vote.

(1) If the Commission votes to close a meeting, or any portion thereof, under this section, it shall make publicly available within 24 hours a written statement of the vote. The written statement shall contain:

(i) A citation to the provision(s) of 11 CFR 2.4 under which the meeting was closed to public observation and an explanation of why the specific discussion comes within the cited exemption(s);

(ii) The vote of each Commissioner participating in the vote;

(iii) A list of the names of all persons expected to attend the closed meeting and their affiliation. For purposes of this section, affiliation means title or position, and name of employer, and in the case of a representative, the name of the person represented. In the case of Commission employees, the statement will reflect, through the use of titles rather than individual names, that the Commissioners, specified division heads and their staff will attend; and

(iv) The signature of the Commission Secretary.

(2) The original copy of the statement shall be maintained by the Commission Secretary. A copy shall be posted on a public bulletin board located in the Commission's Public Records Office.

(e) Public request to close a meeting. A person whose interests may be directly affected by a portion of a meeting may request that the Commission close that portion to the public for any of the reasons referred to in 11 CFR 2.4. The following procedures shall apply to such requests:

(1) The request must be made in writing and shall be directed to the Chairman of the Commission.

(2) The request shall identify the provisions of 11 CFR 2.4 under which the requestor seeks to close all or a portion of the meeting.

(3) A recorded vote to close the meeting or a portion thereof shall be taken.

(4) Requests made under this section shall become part of the official record of the underlying matter and shall be disclosed in accordance with 11 CFR 2.6 on completion of the matter.

(5) If the Commission decides to approve a request to close, the Commission will then follow the procedures for closing a meeting set forth in 11 CFR 2.5 (a) through (d).

[50 FR 39972, Oct. 1, 1985, as amended at 65 FR 9206, Feb. 24, 2000]