Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Ms. Bettman averred that such directions were in the minutes. She asked Ms. Walston for clarification on the policy for keeping recordings of the meetings. Ms. Walston replied that minutes were a part of the permanent public record, the DVDs could be kept forever, in theory, but the previous technology had utilized videotapes and they had a shelf life of two years. Ms. Bettman felt the records should be kept in perpetuity. Ms. Shepard asked the council to finish up the issue of the post-meeting vote summary. Ms. Solomon asked if this would lead to an expectation of Ms. Rose to watch the Webcasts to recapture the motion and votes. Mr. Poling thought the summary would reduce Ms. Rose’s workload after council meetings. Ms. Solomon suggested that the Mayor say out loud who had voted in the affirmative and who had voted in opposition. Ms. Walston suggested having the Mayor restate the motion and to recite the votes. She said sometimes it was unclear what exactly was being voted on and, in the McNutt Room especially, it was not always readily apparent how the councilors had voted. Ms. Shepard observed that Ms. Rose was not present to provide input as to how this change could impact her work. City Manager Taylor felt that it would be a shorter version of the current summary that Ms. Rose generated. The Minutes Recorder interjected that hearing how the votes fell would be very beneficial to the minutes process. Mayor Piercy indicated she would state votes for the record. Ms. Bettman reiterated her preference to keep the record of votes into perpetuity. She stated that DVDs did not degrade. City Manager Taylor said he would look into storage for the DVDs. Mayor Piercy noted that Ms. Ortiz had brought up her desire to receive better notice about newsworthy items. She asked if the council should give a thumbs up regarding this. City Manager Taylor reiterated that the councilors could not be privy to information regarding the dismissal of an employee by law. Ms. Ortiz stressed that her intent was that councilors be provided some advance notice of an item that was newsworthy. Mr. Chouinard stated, regarding the one situation pertaining to a dismissal in the Fire Department, reporters had called City Hall and staff had refused to discuss it, as per the law. The complainant in that incident then went to the press and did not communicate her intent to do so to the City. Ms. Ortiz asked how she was supposed to deal with the community when such issues arose. She acknowl- edged that hiring and firing was not her purview. MINUTES—City Council January 10, 2007 Page 6 Process Session