Two public hearings not taped

Mayor decides not to record hearings; reverses decision after realizing it violated town code

Thursday, June 8, 2006

The public will not have a chance to review the tapes of two hearings that took place on Monday, after Mayor Frank Johnson decided not to continue taping public meetings — a decision that was revoked after council members discussed it.

Johnson said he was trying to save time since town staff has to listen to the tape to generate minutes, which can take a couple of hours. He said he wanted to change from transcriptions of meeting minutes to summaries; however, the meetings will still be recorded.

The mayor said he decided not to tape the meetings following the advice of Lynn Board, town attorney, who attended her first meeting Monday night. He added that this was an effort to save town staff time.

Board said Wednesday that she and Johnson spoke a week or so ago about the Maryland Open Meetings Act, which does not require towns to tape meetings. She said did not realize at the time the town code does require the meetings be taped.

‘‘The town has the authority to adopt a code above and beyond the state law,” Board said, as long as the town code does not conflict with state law.

Johnson’s decision violated town code, which states ‘‘meetings of the Town Council and various boards and commissions are tape recorded.” It has also been general practice that town meetings, such as the council and planning and zoning, are taped for the record so the public or the press can review the minutes.

On Monday night, neither the public hearing on default zoning for annexed land nor the hearing to change two property owner’s zoning classifications to downtown historic zones were taped; however, the council meeting that followed was.

No one spoke against the change in language for the annexed land at the first hearing. At the second hearing, two people pleaded for the council not to change their properties’ zoning, an action officials took during their council meeting.

In recent years, the council began using a digital recorder to save money on tapes. The minutes are stored on a computer, and the public can listen to the recording at town hall after making an appointment.

The issue arose during the Town Council meeting when Councilman Peter Helt, secretary of the council, asked if the meeting was being recorded. One of his jobs as secretary is to record the meetings.

‘‘If Peter [Helt] didn’t confirm the tape recording, I’m not sure it would have come out,” said Councilwoman Wendi Peters on Tuesday.

Peters and Helt advocated during the council meeting for the recordings to still be taken, following town code.

During the second public hearing Monday night, the council addressed the town code violation and Johnson changed his mind. The council decided to continue to record the meetings for public review.

Johnson explained his actions Tuesday. ‘‘It’s no big deal. We changed the way we take the minutes.”

In the past, the minutes generated into transcriptions, Johnson said. ‘‘This put a lot of burden on staff. We considered hiring a part-time contractual person for the minutes.”

Instead, town staff will summarize the meeting minutes, Johnson explained, adding that he was following the advice of the town attorney

‘‘It’s a non-issue,” he said. ‘‘We have the equipment to do it [record the meetings]. There’s something in our town code that requires it.”