Distribution of unapproved minutes

[Guest G Miller]

Can unapproved minutes be distributed to members of the public before being approved by the board?

Thanks, in advance.

[jstackpo]

Probably a bad idea but if the membership of the Board (majority vote, I presume) wishes to do something foolish, RONR won't stop them.

[Trina]

If this process is approved (or perhaps even dictated by bylaws, as it is in one organization I belong to), just make sure the distributed (unapproved) minutes are clearly labelled as draft minutes -- so the people reading them have a clue that it's a preliminary document.

[Guest Guest]

Thanks for the replies. Additional information: the "board" is a local planning commission (a quasi judical body) and the person who distributed the unapproved minutes was the chair person. The other members of the commission became aware of this action as a result of the chair forwarding a e-mail reply to one of the items mentioned in the unapproved minutes from the member of the public who has a company who is interested in the matter under discussion by the commission.

[Trina]

Thanks for the replies. Additional information: the "board" is a local planning commission (a quasi judical body) and the person who distributed the unapproved minutes was the chair person. The other members of the commission became aware of this action as a result of the chair forwarding a e-mail reply to one of the items mentioned in the unapproved minutes from the member of the public who has a company who is interested in the matter under discussion by the commission.

Well, that's a different kettle of fish. I'm not sure the chair's sharing the draft minutes with an interested member of the public is, strictly speaking, against the rules in RONR, since RONR doesn't say much about draft minutes in the first place (I'll check for a relevant citation later). However, it certainly seems undesirable, even wrong, especially if that member of the public stands to gain from the information. You might check other rules governing the commission to see if such private sharing of information by commission members is addressed.

Are approved minutes routinely made available to the public (put up on a town website, or something of the sort)?

If the commission were to adopt a policy that such sharing of unapproved minutes is not permitted, that might be the clearest path forward.

[Guest Guest]

Thanks for the prompt and informative reply. Yes, once approved the minutes are published on the town's web site. I plan on contacting the State organization that represents and advises local governmental bodies as to this action. However, this chair person's term expires in a couple of weeks and the person does not plan to seek a new term so it might be moot point/effort to chase this "tail". It does remain a issue to be concerned about and should be addressed when the new commission is elected next month. Again, thanks for the input.