A POST TO THE EDITOR FROM ClassyEvillepolitics

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A Comment From Classykvillepolitics We Felt Worth Re-posting.
Feb 9, 2016 at 12:18 pm

Dear CCO Editors

I agree completely with you in regards to the City Council meetings needing to continue to be verbatim.

If Miss Mosby decides as President to encourage such an action, I would hope the City Council takes an actual vote on this. I find it to be the epitome of sneagal for such a decision to be made by the President only.

Furthermore, I would encourage readers to note that ALL the major Councils, Boards, and Commissions in Evansville and Vanderburgh County do verbatim transcription of their meetings. I find it to be an extremely bad precedent for the City Council to suddenly make this type of operational change after just a few public meetings.

For the record, the Open Door Law requires (per Indiana Code 5-14-1.5-4(b)) that memoranda of meetings be maintained:

As the meeting progresses, the following memoranda shall be kept:
(1) The date, time, and place of the meeting.
(2) The members of the governing body recorded as either present or absent.
(3) The general substance of all matters proposed, discussed, or decided.
(4) A record of all votes taken, by individual members if there is a roll call.
(5) Any additional information required under Indiana Code 5-1.5-2-2.5 or Indiana Code 20-12-63-7.

Part of what the Open Door Law covers are the recordings of the meeting. A public agency such as the City Council is withing the “spirit” of the Open Door law by using recordings of the meetings,

Furthermore, the City Council is NOT legally obliged to transcribe verbatim the tape recording. The Open Door Law’s memoranda requirements do not require a verbatim transcript of a meeting, and the Access to Public Records Act does not require a public agency to create a record that it is not legally required to create.

In conclusion, I would like to know the actual reason that Miss Mosby has suddenly pounced on the change from transcribed to just using the audio files. Audio only files are hideous for a variety of reasons, least of all that if a person does not properly use the microphone, then what they said is lost.

 

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7 COMMENTS

  1. You have to look at the cost side of this. It takes public resources to invest in creating that record. Why waist that money on a city employee when you could be using it to pay real-estate commissions and fund your friends shady land deals. This money needs to go to big developers and Old National’s downtown and north main areas. We need these issues addressed by each Council Member and their future campaign opponent independently. The election is comming up – less than four years away. Do all the Council Members support minimizing transparency? I would ask but only 4 seem to be getting the emails that I send. And Mosby only responds telling me to quit using one of the emails I have for her. She even copies the city attorney with her hateful responses. I don’t see any reason to use the one she directs me to – I don’t think it works – at least I get no response.

  2. Mosby’s action carries with it an implicit ‘you can’t do anything about it’. It puts a fine point on the secrecy of the Winnecke administration and what little regard they have for the people of Evansville. It will unravel on them and once the curtain is pulled back we’ll find they’ve hatched more shady deals than an awning company. Their re-election underscores the powers of incumbency and the sleepiness of the electorate.

    We have seen the personification of hubris and it’s dressed in yellow.

  3. I really appreciate what you post, Classy. It’s nice to hear from people with direct knowledge about the questions that often pop up here!

    • Laura

      Thank you. I try to approach things from a research position and experience

      Sorry I have been offline today. I got sent out of town

    • I also thank you Classy. Is there any restriction of an audience member (citizen, news media etc) recording the meeting? That might force the cc deeper into their tunnel which would then surely force a call of foul play. I find it amazing the pettiness of some people who should be adult but aren’t even close. I think their behavior is yet another distraction to give the media something to jump on when more important issues are afoot. I also find it strange that the state does not make the requirement for minutes of all cc meetings uniform and across the board. There have, I am sure, been reasons to refer to them for legal purposes in the past. Wouldn’t the city want to protect itself and/or its council members? Or maybe not. . . . . . . . .

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