reading anonymous letter in meeting

[Guest Municipality Manager]

Recently, at an authority meeting, a department head was at the microphone providing information.  When the department head finished speaking on a particular topic, an authority member said 'now is probably the time to read this'.  Then the authority member continued by saying he had received an anonymous letter on the topic the department head was discussing and the authority member proceeded to read the letter.  I do not feel the anonymous letter should have been read nor do I feel it should be included in the minutes.  Am I correct?  If so, is there action I can take prior to the next meeting, or during the next meeting to make sure that the minutes do not include this?  In short, my question is if words are spoken at a meeting and those words should not have been spoken, must the minutes reflect this?  Thank you.

[George Mervosh]

As far as reading the letter:

" If any member objects, a member has no right to read from—or to have the secretary read from—any paper or book as a part of his speech without permission of the assembly."  RONR (11th ed.), p. 298, but you might want to read the entire passage.

Under the rules in RONR that material would not go into the minutes and you could move to have it removed since it shouldn't be there in the first place, but municipal authorities tend to have procedural rules in statute or their own special rules which govern this.  The authority's attorney can advise you on that. 

[Guest Zev]

And if something you feel is objectionable was included in the minutes of prior meetings, you can always move to remove it no matter how far in the past the event occurred. I think it would require a 2/3 vote, but I could be wrong about this.

[George Mervosh]

1 minute ago, Guest Zev said:

And if something you feel is objectionable was included in the minutes of prior meetings, you can always move to remove it no matter how far in the past the event occurred. I think it would require a 2/3 vote, but I could be wrong about this.

It's the same vote as the motion to amend something previously adopted.  But he should still check with the authority's attorney (or solicitor if you live in PA and in some parts of the Free State of Maryland).

[Guest Zev]

49 minutes ago, George Mervosh said:

But he should still check with the authority's attorney (or solicitor if you live in PA and in some parts of the Free State of Maryland).

Absolutely. There may be requirements or perhaps even outright restrictions on their discretion at this point.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 3/5/2019 at 2:23 PM, Guest Municipality Manager said:

Recently, at an authority meeting, a department head was at the microphone providing information.  When the department head finished speaking on a particular topic, an authority member said 'now is probably the time to read this'.  Then the authority member continued by saying he had received an anonymous letter on the topic the department head was discussing and the authority member proceeded to read the letter.  I do not feel the anonymous letter should have been read nor do I feel it should be included in the minutes.  Am I correct?  If so, is there action I can take prior to the next meeting, or during the next meeting to make sure that the minutes do not include this?  In short, my question is if words are spoken at a meeting and those words should not have been spoken, must the minutes reflect this?  Thank you.

Did you or anyone object at the time?   If nobody objects to a member reading letters or other papers, then it's presumed everyone consents to the practice.

However, there is no reason the minutes would include the contents of the letter.  When the minutes are up for approval next meeting, and if the draft minutes include it, you may certainly offer a correction to strike the contents of the letter from the minutes.  The minutes are a record of what was done, not what was said, and certainly not what was read.

I believe the fact that the letter was anonymous supports the view that it shouldn't have been read in the first place, but that's me; I'm not aware of any specific rule on that in RONR.  In any case, that ship has sailed.