Our city council has changed its agendas to include only basic information, with more detailed details—such as preferred vendors—available only in a separate memo posted online.
I recently reviewed the minutes from a December 2024 meeting to see if they included any of the more detailed information found in the memos. They did not. The minutes simply reflect the language from the agenda without additional details.
For example, Item 2 in the minutes states that a contract was awarded to four successful bidders for an animal shelter project valued at just over $4 million. However, the minutes do not name the vendors—this information appears only in the separate memo.
Here is a link to the minutes:
Council Meeting Minutes – December 18, 2024
My questions:
The Public Officers Law sets minimal requirements for meeting minutes:
§ 106. Minutes.
A New York Committee on Open Government opinion (linked below) states:
“From our perspective, every law, including the Open Meetings Law, must be implemented in a manner that gives reasonable effect to its intent. Based on that presumption, we believe that minutes must be sufficiently descriptive to enable the public and others (i.e., future town officials), upon their preparation and upon review perhaps years later, to ascertain the nature of the action taken by a public body.”
The opinion further highlights that meeting minutes were deemed sufficient because they explicitly named the firm receiving a contract:
“Review of the minutes you provided indicates that after an informal competitive bid process in accordance with the District’s purchasing policy, the District unanimously approved a resolution to purchase a compact track loader. Further, with respect to the record of the unanimously approved resolution to award public relations consulting services work, our review of the minutes indicates the name of the winning firm and the period of the service contract. In our opinion, these minutes include sufficient information to ascertain the nature of the District’s action.”
Meeting agendas and minutes should clearly inform the public of the actions taken by the City Council. When approving contracts, the minutes should specify:
The public should not have to decode vague agendas and minutes to understand what their government is doing. Identifying contract recipients and amounts in official records is essential for transparency and accountability.
