To the editor:
Today, Aug. 15, three weeks after the last Cicero Town Board meeting, I called the town clerk’s office to request a copy of the minutes from the July 25 meeting. I was told that the minutes will not be release to the public until they are approved by the town board at the next meeting.
Four issues arise as a result of this.
First, by law, the minutes have to be made available to the public within two weeks of the meeting.
Second, the minutes belong to the town clerk. It is a “myth,” according to Robert Freeman, executive director of the Committee for Open Government, that the minutes have to be approved. The minutes can be stamped “unapproved” or “draft” if the town board is insistent that the councilors “approve” the minutes.
Third, it is a fact that in the past the minutes are not read, and revisions requested by, the town board. I suggest reading the minutes from the March 25, 2015, meeting to see the inaccuracies of the minutes that were not corrected. This is not a criticism of the town clerk. Transcribing accurate minutes when recorded by analog rather than digital means is, at best, difficult. This is a criticism of the town board for “approving” minutes that it insists be practically verbatim and then not reading them and asking for corrections.
Fourth, documents to be discussed at a town board meeting have to be made available to the public before the meeting.
The town clerk, in my view and the view of Mr. Freeman, tries to do the right thing. Unfortunately, it appears that the town board may be impairing her ability to do so and is, in essence, asking her to break the law.
It is my hope that the town board will realize the position it may be placing the town clerk in and request that she comply with New York State law.
Deborah Gardner
Cicero
Editor’s note: As of Aug. 22, the July 25 minutes of the Cicero Town Board were available on the town’s website marked “unapproved”: https://ciceronewyork.net/meetings/
