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If a public authority holds a meeting and the public is allowed to speak, is the public authority required to post the public discussion along with its meeting minutes?
Can it publish its official business and leave out of the published minutes, comments made by the public?
Thank you.
Thanks for asking your great question.
The Open Meetings Law requires a minimal amount of information for meeting minutes.
§106. Minutes.
1. Minutes shall be taken at all open meetings of a public body which shall consist of a record or summary of all motions, proposals, resolutions and any other matter formally voted upon and the vote thereon.
There is no requirement for a public authority or any other public body to include with their meeting minutes or to post separately comments made by the public. Our organization believes that it is a good practice to include in the meeting minutes a brief summary of the public comments made by each person that spoke. A public body can do this if they wish but they are not required to do so.
I hope this answers your question.
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