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:

• Can the minutes be considered accurate if key details, such as vendor names, are omitted from items ultimately approved by the council?
• Are there any standards or guidelines on what should or must be included in official minutes?
• Are there any laws or regulations that govern this, or is it at the discretion of the council?
• More broadly, do you see the concern here? Do you think this approach is appropriate?

A village trustee simply asked for the Board to vote on it during a Board meeting. The public was not informed that a vote might be taken. Is that legal?

Thank you for your response. This sort of thing happens often—the Village Board will vote on items that aren’t on the agenda.

The agenda and meeting documents should be posted online at least 24 hours prior to the meeting. Failing to do so is a violation of the NY State Open Meetings Law.

Meeting minutes or a recording should be posted online within two weeks after a meeting, and not doing so is also a violation of the Open Meetings Law.

Your next options are:

1.Follow up with the town clerk, stating your understanding of the law that meeting agendas, documents, and minutes should be posted online, and ask when this will be corrected.

2.Engage a local news reporter to cover this issue, as media attention can often prompt action.

3.Bring this up at the next board meeting during the public comment period.

4.Hire an attorney to sue the town for violating the law, though this can be expensive and time-consuming.

5.Join the NY Coalition for Open Government for $30 per year to connect with other concerned citizens across the state interested in open government issues. Information on becoming a member is available on our website at www.nyopengov.org.

Our organization is working to reform the Open Meetings Law. A significant part of the problem is the lack of penalties for violations, and there should be a faster, more affordable way to address complaints like yours.

Each town board is able to set their own rules and procedures. Other municipalities use a consent agenda where items that have unanimous agreement at a pre-meeting work session are placed on a consent agenda and approved in one motion.

I have seen Amherst meetings where 100 items are approved in one motion, and two or three items are discussed and voted on. It is certainly not a good practice.

All you can do is ask them to stop using the consent agenda the way they are.

Perhaps your organization can send a formal letter to the town board explaining your objections as to the way the consent agenda is being used and ask them to stop.

Copy the news media.

Talk about it during public comment time at the meeting.

It is unfortunate that not a single board member took the time to respond to your email.

Looking at the town board agenda I see several resolutions listed, for discussion those should have been posted online 24 hours prior for the public to see as well.

Feel free to share this response with your town board members and local news media. It is important to educate elected officials and sometimes the news media can bring attention to these issues.

Recently we wrote the District Clerk again and asked for any interpretation of the school attorney that supports her exclusions re attachments. She wrote:

“Mrs. (omitted),

Per consult with our legal counsel:
The Open Meetings Law does not require the Board to post attachments to every agenda item. Section 103(e) of the Open Meetings Law pertains to documents “which are scheduled to be the subject of discussion by a public body during an open meeting.” If the Board does not anticipate that certain documents will be the subject of discussion during the meeting, Section 103(e) does not require that they be posted.

Here is an opinion from the Committee on Open Government which confirms this :
https://docsopengovernment.dos.ny.gov/coog/otext/o5341.htm
This opinion involves Board Meeting minutes and confirms that when they are not scheduled to be discussed during the meeting, “there would be no obligation to post them online prior to a meeting.” This same analysis would apply to any document that is not scheduled for discussion during the meeting.

Thank you.”

I am making two assumptions about her response:
1) I believe the link cannot be accessed because it is not available on the OML website since it is prior to 1993 and no longer consistent with the 2021 amended law.

2) I also believe that their claim re public agenda items “not scheduled for discussion” violates the parliamentary procedures per Robert’s Rules that they adopt Policy #103.01 re Public Meetings. Unfortunately, their approach, of which they speak with pride, is that they consistently vote unanimously on all public resolutions. How would they know they don’t “anticipate discussion” of a particular item unless they previously reviewed the items together away from the board table? Further, all public agenda items are subject to parliamentary procedure that allows any board member to discuss a resolution once it is moved and seconded.

Are these two assumptions correct?

Can it publish its official business and leave out of the published minutes, comments made by the public?

Thank you.

We have a Who’s On First shtick at Board meetings here in Elma that’s driving us up the wall.

1) when agendas and supporting materials are supposed to be published ahead of Town and Village Planning Board and Board of Education meetings?
2) After meetings, when presentations displayed and discussed at such meetings are to be released to the public.

We see slippage here and would like to file a notification or “complaint” to ask local officials to clean things up, but we’d like to lean on the law or regulations on these points.

Agenda related documents, including minutes, are no longer posted to the website. The Board Clerk’s explanation, that she does not post these items because she does not “anticipate” the Board will discuss these documents, seems to be a  strange interpretation of the law.

Here is the statement I received:
“Section 103(e) pertains to documents “which are scheduled to be the subject of discussion by a public body during an open meeting.”  Since we do not anticipate that these documents will be the subject of discussion during tonight’s meeting, Section 103(e) does not require that we post them in advance. “

Your thoughts?