Dear Ms. Johnson:
During our conversation directly following Monday's City Council meeting, you stated several reasons as to why citizen comments are not summarized in the minutes. This is what I heard:
-You stated that Robert’s Rules of Order specifies that citizen comments not be summarized.
-You said you had been taking minutes for many years and you knew your job well.
-You emphasized that many city councils produce only “action” minutes with no summaries of anything but DeKalb approaches this differently and does summarize council members' comments but not citizen comments.
-You stated that the reason for not summarizing citizen comments is that it is very difficult for you to accurately represent the citizen's intent and because the citizen, unlike a council member, would not be there at the next meeting to approve or amend the summary of what he or she said.
This last reason surprised me partly because some citizen comments from various meetings have been selectively summarized.
After some thought, I have concluded that your concern about accuracy can be addressed. We are now in the age of technology. If a draft version of meeting minutes were to be posted online and made available in your office prior to the meeting, those who spoke during the previous meeting as well as anyone else interested, could examine this document and bring up any concerns before the minutes were approved. As happens now, following approval, the final version could then be posted.
As I was pondering this issue, I did a quick Google search which demonstrated that this is the way many councils and organizations handle their minutes.
During our conversation on Monday night, you commented that hardly anyone looks at past minutes and you based this opinion on how few people had come to ask you for copies prior to minutes being available on the web page. However, the Internet is transforming this. While we may never know how many people view the minutes online, it’s a safe bet that the easy availability of information has increased the number dramatically and I would think we would want to do all we can to encourage this sort of citizen participation.
Please understand that the reason I, and others, persist with all these issues, from questions about Victor Wogen’s election to questions about the meeting minutes, is because the response has been far from adequate. Dismissing those who continue to ask questions by saying “some people will never be satisfied” or “it’s time to move on” is avoiding the issue. Moving on before the problems are properly addressed is likely to create more problems for the future.
As I stated to you individually, I have no interest in personally attacking you or anyone. My concerns are about the minutes and the election. I respect you do not have an easy job and the current scrutiny makes it more stressful. I respect City Council members, too. Observing the number of members who needed to abstain from voting regarding money allocation reinforced the public service values all of you have. This is appreciated. Similar values motivate me to speak out about regarding these current important issues.
I hope you will seriously consider the suggestion regarding the minutes. Thank you for reading this.
Sincerely,
Frances Loubere
Third Ward Resident
During our conversation directly following Monday's City Council meeting, you stated several reasons as to why citizen comments are not summarized in the minutes. This is what I heard:
-You stated that Robert’s Rules of Order specifies that citizen comments not be summarized.
-You said you had been taking minutes for many years and you knew your job well.
-You emphasized that many city councils produce only “action” minutes with no summaries of anything but DeKalb approaches this differently and does summarize council members' comments but not citizen comments.
-You stated that the reason for not summarizing citizen comments is that it is very difficult for you to accurately represent the citizen's intent and because the citizen, unlike a council member, would not be there at the next meeting to approve or amend the summary of what he or she said.
This last reason surprised me partly because some citizen comments from various meetings have been selectively summarized.
After some thought, I have concluded that your concern about accuracy can be addressed. We are now in the age of technology. If a draft version of meeting minutes were to be posted online and made available in your office prior to the meeting, those who spoke during the previous meeting as well as anyone else interested, could examine this document and bring up any concerns before the minutes were approved. As happens now, following approval, the final version could then be posted.
As I was pondering this issue, I did a quick Google search which demonstrated that this is the way many councils and organizations handle their minutes.
During our conversation on Monday night, you commented that hardly anyone looks at past minutes and you based this opinion on how few people had come to ask you for copies prior to minutes being available on the web page. However, the Internet is transforming this. While we may never know how many people view the minutes online, it’s a safe bet that the easy availability of information has increased the number dramatically and I would think we would want to do all we can to encourage this sort of citizen participation.
Please understand that the reason I, and others, persist with all these issues, from questions about Victor Wogen’s election to questions about the meeting minutes, is because the response has been far from adequate. Dismissing those who continue to ask questions by saying “some people will never be satisfied” or “it’s time to move on” is avoiding the issue. Moving on before the problems are properly addressed is likely to create more problems for the future.
As I stated to you individually, I have no interest in personally attacking you or anyone. My concerns are about the minutes and the election. I respect you do not have an easy job and the current scrutiny makes it more stressful. I respect City Council members, too. Observing the number of members who needed to abstain from voting regarding money allocation reinforced the public service values all of you have. This is appreciated. Similar values motivate me to speak out about regarding these current important issues.
I hope you will seriously consider the suggestion regarding the minutes. Thank you for reading this.
Sincerely,
Frances Loubere
Third Ward Resident
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